I'm quitting Magic. I've realized I cannot become the person I need to become while playing this game, so I'm going to release something that I've worked on for well over a year at this point: a guide to my Commander deck, Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. It isn't finished, nor will it ever be, but by releasing it I'm hoping that someone somewhere may find value in its contents nonetheless. Mods, if you feel this isn't the appropriate section for whatever reason, feel free to move this thread where ever.
EDIT: So, I may have announced my retirement a tad early. It looks like I'm still playing Magic, and I have more new decks than I've ever had. Mr. Bones' Wild Ride is still a project I have sidelined. I don't think there's any more room for it to grow, at least given the current cardpool, but I'll routinely check up on this thread in case anyone is interested in continuing the discussion.
Mr. Bones’ Wild Ride is a 23-card combo designed to trap you and your friends inside a game of Magic forever.
I’m not being figurative here. Once this combo is in place, your game literally will not end.
My name is Michael Murphy (arrogantAxolotl here at MTGS), and this is Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. Originally conceived by local Houston Magic player Seth Lede, Mr. Bones' Wild Ride is a combo deck based on the 4chan meme of the same name. Its goal, unlike most Magic decks, is not to actually win the game. Rather, Mr. Bones seeks to trap each player in an endless game of Magic. What do I mean by that? Well, by constructing an intricate 23-card combo (yes, you read that right. A 23-card combo), it's entirely possible to stop a game of Magic. Not end it. Stop it. Players won't be able to win. Players won't be able to lose. And they'll all just be sort of stuck there, passing the turn forever and ever, never able to leave...
Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it?
This thread aims to immortalize my personal Rube Goldberg machine. If you enjoy wacky decks, rules headaches, and excessively long combos, then this is the place for you.
Just Who the Heck Are You Again?
I'm Michael Murphy, a mad scientist from Houston, Texas. For over two plus years, I've explored the idea of creating the perfect lock. In doing so, I may have taken the idea further than anyone else alive.
Having played Magic on and off since Darksteel, I first became enthralled with Commander about the time of Khans of Tarkir's release. At the time, I had a very clear goal. I wanted to build a Zedruu deck. And not just your typical bad Christmas Zedruu either. I wanted to build the "perfect" deck, a deck which could create the most interesting games of Magic possible.
Determined to build this mythical deck, I experimented for months, yet despite my best efforts, I failed in my endeavor. Crafting such a masterpiece was simply beyond my abilities. Defeated, I turned to new commanders in an effort to find something fresh. Moving from one deck to the next, I felt increasingly dissatisfied with everything I tried though. Nothing I played felt original. Nothing felt like it belonged to me. It was during this nadir of mine that fellow Magic player Seth Lede spoke to me about an idea of his. What if it were possible to stop the game? Not end it. Just, like, bring it to a halt. Make it so that players can't actually do anything, and they all have to sit there because their game is stuck, and there's nothing they can do about it.
Seth's idea spoke to me. Although he didn't seem to realize it, Seth's idea was SOLID GOLD. A deck that could break Magic? I had never heard of such a thing. I mean, sure. Combos that couldn't self-terminate? That went on and on forever? I knew all about those. But this deck was different, so different in fact that I wasn't exactly sure if building it would even be possible, at least not without getting stuck in some kind of loop.
Knowing full well that Seth's idea was too good to give up (and that he wouldn't be doing anything with it), it was up to me to make his idea a reality. After poring through Gatherer for nearly a month, I began to sculpt the very first version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. It was rough, but it looked a little something like—
—this. Now, the exact details have been lost to time (sorry about that), but to my best recollection, what you see above constitutions my first attempt at creating the Mr. Bones combo. And the direction I initially took it might not be lost upon you either. Before I was really sure about what my goal actually was, I decided it would be best to look at each of Magic's phases and to get rid of as many of them as possible. After all, if players could still play Magic, it probably wouldn't take long for someone to dismantle the Ride. Anyway, for a first attempt, I actually got a lot right, so much so that many of the same components still exist in the Ride to this day.
How It Works
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield (which is everything except for Neverending Torment). Before doing that though, you will need to float at least 6 mana since Lattice and Stony Silence will prevent you from tapping your lands for mana once they're on the battlefield.
Once everything is in place, use your floating mana to cast Neverending Torment. (Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Hive Mind, and each opponent will receive a copy of Neverending Torment. Who you choose to target with your instance of Neverending Torment is mostly irrelevant as you'll see in the description to come.
Once each player has resolved their copy of Neverending Torment, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Stony Silence) and of cards in graveyards (Yixlid Jailer). In addition, players will lose 3 life during their draw steps via Maralen of the Mornsong, but fail to search their libraries due to Mindlock Orb. Abyssal Persecutor will prevent your opponents from losing to Maralen, and Platinum Angel will prevent you from losing in kind.
As you can see, when I couldn't find a way to skip a step, I did my best to make that step as useless as possible. Debatably, the success of this and future versions of the Ride was largely due to me recognizing that there are really only four kinds of actions a player can effectively take in a game of Magic.
1. Players can cast spells. 2. Players can activate abilities. 3. Players can play land cards. 4. Players can attack and block with creatures.
By preventing players from taking any of the four actions above, an endless game can be created provided some combination of cards can stop players from losing the game (Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor in this case). After all, if nothing in play can end the game, and the status quo can't change, then nothing can disrupt the Ride.
Why Not Use Teferi + Knowledge Pool?
Because effectively stopping players from casting spells is not the same as actually stopping players from casting spells. With Teferi and Knowledge Pool, players can still cast spells; doing so is just usually worthless. Note the word "usually" here. That's important. Since Teferi and Knowledge Pool don't actually stop players from casting spells, players could still use cast triggers from cards like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to try and escape. Furthermore, because Knowledge Pool only exiles spells cast from a player's hand, players could still cast their commanders, not to mention any cards exiled by Omen Machine. Those vulnerabilities are massive, and Neverending Torment does a much better job shoring those up than Teferi and Knowledge Pool ever could.
Doesn't This Cause the Game to Technically End in a Draw?
Sadly, yes.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules, July 08, 2017 »
104.4b If a game that’s not using the limited range of influence option (including a two-player game) somehow enters a “loop” of mandatory actions, repeating a sequence of events with no way to stop, the game is a draw. Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw.
While rule 104.4b looks easy enough to subvert, I can say with confidence that it is actually more difficult than it appears. Currently, I do not possess an understanding of the rules expansive enough to subvert it. As such, I like to pretend that each game I play is one using the range of influence option and that that range of influence is also needlessly excessive. Doing so helps circumvent 104.4b in the meantime.
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, simply follow the directions for the previous version. You will need to float 7 mana and then put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield. It is important you float your mana before putting these cards into play because once Lattice and Null Rod are on the battlefield you won't be able to tap your lands for mana.
Once everything is in place, use 6 of your floating mana to cast Neverending Torment. (Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Hive Mind, and each opponent will receive a copy of the epic spell. (Who you target with Neverending Torment is largely irrelevant.) Don't let any of those Torments resolve though. Instead, hold priority, and then use the last of your mana to cast One with Nothing. Hive Mind will trigger again, and your opponents will each produce a copy of One with Nothing for themselves. Now resolve the stack.
One with Nothing will resolve first, and each player will discard their hand. Afterwards, Neverending Torment will resolve, and each player will attempt to exile cards from someone's library. Because players just discarded their hands though, they likely won't be able to exile any cards with Torment (not that that matters).
Once all the Neverending Torments resolve, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Stony Silence). Players will further be unable to activate abilities of cards in hand (One with Nothing) and of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace) because no cards will be in those zones with which to activate. Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor will then stop players from winning or losing the game. (If only the first block of cards was put onto the battlefield, Omen Machine will fulfill this role instead.)
In Magic, there are several ways to lose the game. Players can lose by drawing from an empty library, by having 0 or less life, or by gaining 10 or more poison counters. Some cards like Glorious End can even cause players to lose the game outright. Despite these different lose conditions, there is only one way for players to naturally lose the game, and that's by drawing a card from an empty library. This is because players are required to draw a card each turn. Libraries are finite, and when a player runs out of cards, that's it. Game over. Players don't innately take damage, and they don't innately receive poison counters, but they do innately draw cards each turn. That's why, if I ever wanted to create an endless game of Magic, I knew I would first need to stop the game from ending itself.
Enter Omen Machine. Omen Machine was perhaps the greatest influence on the entire Mr. Bones combo because its discovery led me to the realization that, undisrupted, a single card could stop players from losing the game via natural means. Yes, Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor could together accomplish the same effect, but with this artifact, only a single card would be necessary. By preventing players from drawing cards, Omen Machine makes losing the game by drawing from an empty library simply impossible.
The card's backstory in relation to the Ride is something I also find a bit interesting. When I first began inventing the Ride, I neglected Omen Machine as a combo piece entirely. This was because of how I conducted my research. Believing I would want to remove each of Magic's phases, I pored over Gatherer for cards pertaining to each of those phases sequentially. When I arrived at the draw step, I hadn't introduced Worms of the Earth or Neverending Torment to the combo yet, two cards which would be critical for mitigating Omen Machine's drawback. Suspecting I would never find a way to circumvent Omen Machine's draw step trigger (something which would very much threaten to undo the Ride if not addressed), I glossed over it and eventually moved on to Maralen of the Mornsong. In retrospect, neither Maralen nor the Mindlock Orb that accompanied her were ever truly necessary. Omen Machine would have performed the exact same role without requiring any additional cards to support it. (Worms of the Earth and Neverending Torment would see play in the combo regardless.)
So, having realized that the Mr. Bones combo would never need anything as sophisticated as a 23-card combo to create an endless game of Magic, that it would only ever need a single card, Omen Machine, to do so, I came to the unsurprising conclusion that just because a card like Omen Machinecould create an endless game by itself doesn't mean it ever would. In fact, because Omen Machine plays free cards each turn, it would be incredibly unlikely for Omen Machine to not bring about the end of the game. Players would inevitably cast something that killed one another. That, or destroy Omen Machine itself. For those reasons, I knew if I ever wanted to achieve my goal, I would need to do more than just put Omen Machine into play. I would need to create a framework that protected it and ensured none of my opponents could ever change the status quo.
The Extended Combo, named for the way I "extended" the primary lock, was a major evolution in the Mr. Bones combo, spending most of its life in this version. The core cards, listed in the first block with Omen Machine, formed the foundation of the combo. They served to limit each player's freedom as discussed at length in the previous section. Without them, an endless game would almost certainly never exist. The second chunk of cards (Platinum Angel onward) make up the "extended" part of the combo. These cards don't restrict players in the same way the core cards do; they are merely auxiliary pieces used to protect the combo from corner case scenarios.
Different from the previous version is the exclusion of Maralen and Mindlock Orb. With Omen Machine supplanting the two as the combo's primary vehicle for game perpetuation, there's no longer any need to directly address loss of life. As such, Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor can now be safely relegated to the optional part of the Ride seeing as the two fliers don't stop core functions like Null Rod or Neverending Torment do.
At the beginning of each of your precombat main phases, you will add GG to your mana pool with Eladamri's Vineyard. This mana will not exit your mana pool as steps and phases end due to Upwelling. Once enough turns have passed and a sufficient amount of mana has been generated this way, you can then turn your face down Bane of the Living face up. (The Mycosynth Lattice controlled by Mr. Bones allows players to spend mana as though it were any color.) Bane of the Living's triggered ability will then go on the stack. When it resolves, all of Mr. Bones' creatures will be put into his exile (Rest in Peace), and the Wild Ride will be disassembled.
I am not the first person who's tried to create the perfect lock. Many magicians before me have given it their best efforts, and their fruits tend to look much like my Extended Combo: seemingly airtight but utterly helpless against Bane of the Living. Indeed, by turning a face down Bane of the Living face up, any player can unravel such a lock by reducing each creature's toughness to 0. And since turning a card face up isn't an activated ability — it's a special action — Null Rod can't stop it, a quirk that allows morphs to uniquely disrupt these combos. This represented an enormous obstacle due to the Wild Ride's reliance on a few specific creature cards. Indestructibility won't save creatures from state based actions, and no cards exist which prevent players from turning their creatures face up, at least not without causing creatures to lose their abilities outright. Even if such cards did exist, they likely wouldn't be of much help. Players would inevitably find other ways to wipe my creatures with fatigue, no morph shenanigans necessary.
To combat Bane of the Living, I tried a number of things. I tried preventing cards from turning face up. No dice. I also tried preventing mana from entering mana pools. No luck there either. Then I got a different idea. What if I didn't play any creatures? An impossible feat given the combo's dependence on certain creature cards, but if I could turn said creatures into noncreature permanents (and not lose their abilities in the process) I needn't worry about Bane of the Living ever again. I would have no creatures with which to lose to it!
For months, I sought a way to accomplish this. I looked for a way to graft my creature's abilities onto other noncreature cards. That proved to be a dead end. Then I tried turning my creatures into noncreature permanents. Most abilities that change a card's type go the other way around though, and the few that don't tend to cause ability loss. No matter what I tried, nothing seemed to work, and after a while, I gave up on the task entirely. Then, one day, while lurking through the magicTCG subreddit, I stumbled across a thread involving difficult cards for judges. It was there I found Opal Acrolith, and I immediately knew I had struck gold.
How It Works
To permanently transform your creatures into noncreature enchantments, you will need an Opal Acrolith to be on the battlefield alongside every other creature you wish to transform.
Cast Mirrorweave targeting Opal Acrolith. (Opal Acrolith will need to be a creature in order for you to do this.) When Mirrorweave resolves, all creatures, including your opponents', will become copies of Opal Acrolith until end of turn. Since animation isn't a copiable characteristic, the Opal Acrolith copies won't immediately become creatures; they'll be enchantments as printed on the Opal Acrolith card itself. This shouldn't matter since the state of your Acrolith copies isn't pertinent to the combo. It is merely useful to know.
Once every creature has become an Opal Acrolith, activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths that you wish to permanently remain enchantments. (Your Acroliths don't need to be creatures to do this.) When Mirrorweave wears off at the end of the turn, any creature that used its 0 ability while it was an Opal Acrolith will remain an enchantment indefinitely due to the continuous effect it generated in layer 4.
NOTE: In the event an opponent casts a creature spell before Mirrorweave wears off, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again in order for them to remain enchantments. Any Acrolith that doesn't will become a soldier creature with base power and toughness 2/4 post-Mirrorweave.
Having discovered how to avoid the Bane's ill effects, this technology can now be married to the rest of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride.
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the following steps in order.
1. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Lattice and Hive Mind.
There are numerous reasons why Mycosynth Lattice can't be played at this time, and hopefully these will become clear to you once the combo has been fully explained.
First, in order to avoid Bane of the Living, each creature must activate its second ability while it's a copy of Opal Acrolith. If Mycosynth Lattice were on the battlefield at this time, the 0 ability would overwrite the Lattice's first ability, and your creature cards would no longer be artifacts after Mirrorweave expires. As such, they would no longer be protected by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
Third, you will need to cast spells during different turns and phases. This will be difficult for you without some way to stop mana from leaving your mana pool as Null Rod will prevent you from tapping your lands for mana once Mycosynth Lattice is on the battlefield. As such, you won't be able to simply float all the mana you need first.
The reason Hive Mind can't be played at this time is because you need to cast Mirrorweave before Hive Mind enters the battlefield. If Hive Mind were put into play first, it would create a copy of Mirrorweave for your opponents, and your opponents could use that copy to thwart your combo by transforming your Opal Acrolith into something else before any of your cards could become copies of it (since their copy of Mirrorweave would resolve before your Mirrorweave would).
2. Cast Mirrorweave targeting Opal Acrolith. (Opal Acrolith will need to be a creature in order for you to do this.) This will turn each creature into a copy of Opal Acrolith until end of turn. (It won't matter if your opponents' creatures become Acroliths.)
3. Activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths, then pass the turn, ending the effects of Mirrorweave. In the event an opponent somehow casts a creature spell after you've activated your Acroliths but before the turn has ended, you will need to activate your Acroliths again to ensure they remain enchantments.
4. Once Mirrorweave has worn off, float 7 mana, then put Lattice and Hive Mind onto the battlefield. (The order these two cards enter the battlefield is unimportant.) It is important you float your mana before putting these cards into play because once Lattice and Null Rod are on the battlefield together, you won't be able to tap your lands for mana. From there, Lattice will make each permanent an artifact in addition to its other types. Your creature cards should now be artifact enchantments with no other card types.
Mycosynth Lattice's first ability is a continous effect that changes each permanent's card type in layer 4. Opal Acrolith's second ability also creates a continuous effect in layer 4. Because two different continuous effects are being applied in the same layer and because neither are dependent upon the other (which is to say that the order of the effects doesn't matter here), the game determines the order of the effects via timestamps. (The continuous effect generated first will be applied first, and the continuous effect generated second will be applied second.)
For example, if Mycosynth Lattice entered the battlefield first and turned everything into an artifact, and then Opal Acrolith activated its second ability, the Acrolith would gain the artifact card type from Lattice before subsequently overwriting it with its second ability, making the Acrolith an enchantment with no other card types.
If, on the other hand, the order of effects were reversed (perhaps because Mycosynth Lattice was played after Opal Acrolith had already used its second ability), then Opal Acrolith would first overwrite its existing card types, becoming an enchantment, and then become an artifact in addition to its other types, making it an artifact enchantment at the end of the process.
As you can see, the order of the effects matters here. When applied in one direction, the Acrolith becomes an enchantment. When applied in the other direction, the Acrolith becomes an artifact enchantment. For this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, the goal is to have all your Opal Acroliths become artifact enchantments, so they can be preserved by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
5. With 6 of your remaining mana, cast Neverending Torment targeting any player. (Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Hive Mind, and each opponent will receive a copy of Neverending Torment. Before any of those Torments resolve though, hold priority and cast One with Nothing with the last of your mana. Hive Mind will trigger again, and each opponent will receive a copy of One with Nothing. Now resolve the stack.
One with Nothing will resolve first, and each player will discard their hand. Afterwards, Neverending Torment will resolve, and each player will attempt to exile cards from some player's library. Because each player just discarded their hand to One with Nothing, it is unlikely any cards will be exiled with Neverending Torment (not that this matters).
6. Once all Neverending Torments have resolved, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Null Rod). Players will further be unable to activate abilities of cards in hand (One with Nothing) and of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace) because no cards will be in those zones with which to activate. Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor will stop players from winning and losing the game or Omen Machine depending upon the extent of the combo in play.
Aside from the inclusion of the Acrolith combo, not much has changed with this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. Since all of my permanents are noncreature artifacts now, Guardian Beast does get to stand in for Darksteel Forge though, preventing players from enchanting or gaining control of any of my permanents. This may seem like a strict upgrade from Darksteel Forge, but it is worth noting that the Beast's effects only apply while the card is untapped. As such, any effect that could cause Guardian Beast to tap could threaten the security of the entire Ride.
Now, I have never found a way for my opponents to tap Guardian Beast, so that vulnerability may not seem critical, but I have also never found a way for my opponents to enchant or gain control of any of my permanents either, so it's entirely possible that I'm just trading one set of weaknesses for another. In the event that one of these cards proves fallible though, the other could obviously take its place.
After having made the realization that solutions to the Ride would always exist provided players could find ways to cheat cards into play, I became convinced that the only hope for the Mr. Bones combo rested upon stopping permanents from entering the battlefield outright. Never would there exist a combination of cards powerful enough to stop each and every thing an opponent could possibly put into play. If I wanted to ensure no new card could interfere with my combo, I would have to stop permanents from coming into play altogether.
Worms of the Earth prevents players from playing lands. More importantly, Worms of the Earth stops lands from entering play. That made me wonder. Would it be possible to make permanents enter the battlefield as lands? If so, would Worms of the Earth prevent those cards from entering play?
To turn all opposing permanents into lands, put each of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield, then cast Artificial Evolution targeting either Dismiss into Dream or Life and Limb. If you choose Dismiss into Dream, textchange Illusion to Saproling. If you choose Life and Limb, textchange Saproling to Illusion. This will ensure that, whatever you choose, the creature types printed on the two cards will synch up.
The result? Mycosynth Lattice will turn all permanents into artifacts. March of the Machines will further turn them into creatures. Dismiss into Dream will grant each of your opponents' permanents (since they're all creatures now) a new creature type, and since it will match the one printed on Life and Limb due to Artificial Evolution, this will cause all opposing permanents to become Saproling (or Illusion) Forest lands in addition to their other types.
NOTE: Should Mr. Bones wish to make his own permanents into lands too, he need only introduce Conspiracy to the combo, naming either Saproling or Illusion as appropriate.
So, the above combo works swimmingly. Using those five cards, Mr. Bones can reliably transform his opponents' permanents into lands. But I still needed to know: would adding Worms of the Earth and Eon Hub to the combo work? (Eon Hub being there solely to stop Worms of the Earth from destroying itself with its upkeep trigger.) If permanents would be lands the moment they entered the battlefield, would Worms of the Earth stop them from entering the battlefield outright? Turns out, the answer was no.
Quote from Toby Elliott, L3 Judge »
Life and Limb doesn't apply to the permanent until it's on the battlefield. So Worms won't stop them entering...
Prior to Amonkhet's release, the answer to that question was a little fuzzy. That's because there was no rule (to my knowledge) that directly handled how static abilities modified permanents entering the battlefield (or not), only a rule for handling replacement effects, which Worms of the Earth is not. Come Amonkhet though, a patch would be made to the comprehensive rules, eliminating this gray area.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules, 04/28/17 »
614.16d Some “can’t” effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield or whether it can enter the battlefield. Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which “can’t” effects apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects generated by the resolution of spells or abilities that changed the permanent’s characteristics on the stack (see rule 400.7a), and continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities, but ignoring continuous effects from any other source that would affect it.
So, the combo wouldn't work. Drat. If I wanted to build an unbreakable combo, I'd have to find some other way to do it. That displeasing conclusion led me to a new question though. Maybe I couldn't stop permanents from entering the battlefield, but what if I could make them lose their abilities? That way, no matter what sort of card entered play, it wouldn't matter. Nothing would be able to change the status quo. The Ride would be invincible! As it would turn out, this time I succeeded.
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the steps below in order. (You may want to read closely. This combo is kind of a doozie.)
1. Float at least 14WWUBB. You will need this mana to cast spells. Since Lattice and March will nuke your lands the moment they notice each other though, you're going to need to float 14WWUBB at a minimum before both of those cards enter the battlefield. And although it may appear as though the colored mana won't be specifically necessary due to Mycosynth Lattice's third ability allowing players to spend mana as though it were any color, be aware that the Lattice will become a temporary copy of Opal Acrolith later in the combo and that you will want to cast colored spells after the Lattice has become an Opal Acrolith (and therefore lost its abilities) but before the copy effect has worn off. As such, colored mana will be necessary.
2. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Hive Mind and Humility. (The mana you floated earlier was not for this purpose. As such, you will need to float additional mana to pay for these spells or you will need to find some other way to put them onto the battlefield.)
The reason Hive Mind can't immediately be put onto the battlefield is because you need to cast Cytoshape to turn all of your permanents into copies of Opal Acrolith with Zada, Hedron Grinder. If Hive Mind were in play during this time, your opponents would receive their own copy of Cytoshape from Hive Mind, and they could use that copy to thwart your combo by transforming your Opal Acrolith into something else before any of your cards could become copies of it (since their copy of Cytoshape would resolve before your Cytoshape would). Fortunately, there's no need to put Hive Mind onto the battlefield during step 2 since it isn't important that Hive Mind retain its abilities. As you'll see in step 6, Hive Mind's only purpose is to help assemble the Ride. Once the combo is complete, you won't need Hive Mind anymore, so you won't care if it loses its abilities later to Humility.
The reason you need to hold off on Humility is a bit more straightforward. If you put Humility onto the battlefield during step 2, you wouldn't be able to combo off. You need Lattice, March of the Machines, Zada, and Opal Acrolith to all retain their abilities. That's not possible with Humility on the battlefield, and without them it wouldn't be possible to turn your cards into enchantments as you'll see in steps 3 and 4.
3. Use 3 of your floating mana to cast Cytoshape targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. (Remember: Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Zada's ability, creating a copy of Cytoshape for each of your permanents (Lattice, March). As your Cytoshapes resolve, choose to have each of your permanents become a copy of Opal Acrolith.
4. Activate the 0 ability of each of your newfound Acroliths. (They don't need to be creatures to do this.) This will permanently transform your cards into noncreature enchantments even after Cytoshape wears off. In the event an opponent somehow casts a creature spell before the end of the turn, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again to ensure they remain enchantments (though you likely won't be able to after step 5).
5. Use 7WWU of your floating mana to cast both Hive Mind and Humility. (The order these two cards enter the battlefield is unimportant.) Because your Lattice, your March, and everything else you control is currently a copy of Opal Acrolith, you don't need to worry about Humility interfering with any of your other cards' abilities.
6. Cast Neverending Torment with your remaining 4BB, targeting whoever you please. (Who you target is mostly irrelevant.) Hive Mind will trigger and grant each of your opponents their own copy of Neverending Torment.
7. Once each players' Torment resolves, players will no longer be able to cast spells, and you can safely pass the turn. Your Cytoshape effects will wear off, turning all of your permanents back to normal except they will remain noncreature, nonartifact enchantments due to the continuous effects you generated back in step 4 when they were Opal Acroliths.
And with that, the Wild Ride is complete. Players won't be able to cast spells (due to having previously cast a Neverending Torment), won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Lattice + March + Humility) or of cards in graveyards (Yixlid Jailer), and won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper + Eon Hub). In addition, Humility will wipe the effects of everything not spared in step 4, and Omen Machine will stop players from decking out by removing their ability to draw, all but assuring an endless game in the process.
The reintroduction of Yixlid Jailer is rather fascinating. Those following along closely will remember from The Extended Combo that Yixlid Jailer was replaced by Rest in Peace after I realized that cards like Dawnbreak Reclaimer often made having cards in graveyards at all a huge liability. And while it may be possible to address those weaknesses with the right combination of graveyard hate cards, I have never put much stock in those concoctions, preferring to skirt the issue entirely by declaring graveyards off limits. That was easy enough to justify with Rest in Peace in my repertoire. By exiling each graveyard and keeping future cards out, there could be no cards in graveyards with which players could interact. Unfortunately, Rest in Peace cannot ensure graveyards are cardless. It is still possible for cards to wind up there in much the same way that One with Nothing can't ensure players are empty handed.
First, Rest in Peace can have its initial ability Stifled. This won't stop future cards from being exiled, but it will allow anything already there to stay put. Second, Rest in Peace can gain phasing. Any card put into a graveyard while Rest in Peace is phased out will not be exiled even after Rest in Peace phases back in. Third, Rest in Peace can become a temporary copy of something else (like an Opal Acrolith). If a card were put into a graveyard while Rest in Peace wasn't itself, that card would remain there even after Rest in Peace shrugs off its transformation.
Now, granted, these situations are incredibly unlikely, but so is every other out to Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, so they shouldn't just be brushed aside. The disappointing reality is that even though Yixlid Jailer will almost always be unnecessary in practice, most versions of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride ought to include both Yixlid JailerandRest in Peace, the Jailer to silence graveyards and Rest in Peace to stop death triggers. The Divergent Combo, however, is not most versions. Because death triggers cannot occur while Humility is on the battlefield, Rest in Peace, like Torpor Orb, is no longer needed here. As such, Yixlid Jailer will instead cover more possible holes while simultaneously allowing opponents the freedom to control whatever cards they want in their graveyard.
Prison... Break?
To my knowledge, there is currently no way to escape this form of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. In fact, I suspect there never will be. This is because of the way Humility behaves.
Instead of granting would-be Houdinis the freedoms they need to escape, the Divergent Combo denies players the chance to control anything. Sort of. Like previous versions, players can still assume to control whatever it is they wish. Under the effects of Humility though, those cards become 1/1s with no abilities. As such, there's really no point in controlling anything. All cards in play become moot.
This helps illustrate why the other versions of the Ride are so beautiful. The Divergent Combo can't be broken. It doesn't give players any tools with which to escape. The other forms of the combo, while imperfect, are much wider in scope, allowing opponents to assume control of whatever it is that they want provided those cards don't interfere with the Ride's initial assembly. (Because, if they did, there'd be no point to the exercise in the first place.) And the Divergent Combo? It's lame. It's no different than if all your cards started in exile. Maximum security like that isn't impressive when it comes at the cost of breadth, so I forwent Humility in the next version to pursue something a little broader.
Come Ixalan, something miraculous happened. Remember this?
Quote from Comprehensive Rules, 04/28/17 »
614.16d Some “can’t” effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield or whether it can enter the battlefield. Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which “can’t” effects apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects generated by the resolution of spells or abilities that changed the permanent’s characteristics on the stack (see rule 400.7a), and continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities, but ignoring continuous effects from any other source that would affect it.
It's the comp rule that previously thwarted my Worms of the Earth experiment, my bold for emphasis. Well, with Ixalan's release, that comp rule has changed. It has now become this:
Quote from Comprehensive Rules, 09/29/17 »
614.17d Some “can’t” effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield or whether it can enter the battlefield. Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which “can’t” effects apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.
Notice anything different? The critical bolded text from the Amonkhet update is gone. Permanents entering the battlefield now take into account how continuous effects would apply to them should they actually enter. This now makes it possible to stop all permanents from entering the battlefield outright!
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the following steps in order:
1. Float at least 13UBB. You will need this mana to cast spells. Since Null Rod will stop you from tapping your lands for mana once Lattice is in play though, you will need to make sure to float 13UBB at a minimum before both of those artifacts enter the battlefield. And while it may appear as though the colored mana won't be specifically necessary due to Mycosynth Lattice's third ability allowing players to spend mana as though it were any color, be aware that Lattice will become a temporary copy of Opal Acrolith later in the combo and that you will want to cast colored spells after the Lattice has become an Opal Acrolith (and therefore lost its abilities) but before its copy effect has worn off. As such, colored mana will be necessary.
2. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Hive Mind. (The mana you floated earlier was not for this purpose. As such, you will need to either float additional mana to pay for these spells, or you will need to find some other way to put them onto the battlefield.) As a result of these cards entering play, Lattice and March will cause all lands to be put into their owners' exiles (Rest in Peace). Copy Enchantment should also become a copy of Privileged Position. Note that if both Copy Enchantment and Privileged Position enter the battlefield simultaneously though (perhaps due to Pyxis of Pandemonium), you won't be able to have your Copy Enchantment become a copy of Privileged Position, so make sure that your Privileged Position is in play prior to your Copy Enchantment entering the battlefield so as to not have both enchantments enter the battlefield at the same time.
The reason Hive Mind needs to be temporarily sidelined is because you need to turn all of your permanents into enchantments, but if you do so with Hive Mind on the battlefield, then your opponents will have the opportunity to either turn their own permanents into Acroliths (defeating the point of using Zada + Cytoshape instead of Mirrorweave, thereby allowing them to turn their own permanents into noncreature enchantments, dodging critical cards like Null Rod) or turn your Acrolith into something else (fizzeling your combo by causing your Opal Acrolith to become a copy of something else before any of your cards can become copies of it). Fortunately, it isn't necessary to have the Hive Mind itself become a noncreature enchantment (or Zada, Hedron Grinder for that matter, though the card must be the target of Cytoshape for obvious reasons) since Hive Mind's sole purpose is to grant opponents a copy of an epic spell (Neverending Torment in this case). Once opponents have cast their copy of Torment, Hive Mind is no longer required, and an opponent turning their face down Bane of the Living face up to kill it (remember that Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines will cause each of Mr. Bones' permanents that don't become enchantments through Opal Acrolith's ability to become artifact creatures) won't dismantle the Ride.
3. If the Dismiss Into Dream or Life and Limb you have on the battlefield hasn't already been textchanged by Artificial Evolution, be sure to spend 1 of your floating mana (not U) to cast Evolution now, changing either Illusion to Saproling on Dismiss Into Dream or Saproling to Illusion on Life and Limb. This will ensure the two cards' creature types match and that opponents' permanents will eventually not be able to enter the battlefield. It's important this happens before Cytoshape is cast since Zada will transform each of your permanents into Opal Acroliths once Cytoshape resolves, and the printed types you need to change won't be there anymore once all of your cards are Acroliths.
4. Use 3 more of your floating mana to cast Cytoshape targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. This will trigger Zada's ability, creating a copy of Cytoshape for each of your permanents (remember: Lattice and March are causing all of your permanents to become artifact creatures). Choose to have all of your permanents become copies of Opal Acrolith. As mentioned in step two, it's important to have your permanents become copies of Opal Acrolith prior to Hive Mind entering play lest an opponent use a copy of Cytoshape gifted to them by Hive Mind to turn your Opal Acrolith into something else, preventing you from turning your own permanents into copies of it yourself.
5. Activate the 0 ability of each of your Opal Acrolith copies. This will permanently turn them into noncreature enchantments (assuming your opponents are incapable of casting creature spells during this process). In the event an opponent somehow does cast a creature spell, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again to ensure they stay as enchantments and not creatures.
6. Use 5U of your floating mana to cast Hive Mind.
7. Cast Neverending Torment with your remaining 4BB targeting whoever you please. (Who you target is mostly irrelevant.) Hive Mind will trigger and grant each of your opponents their own copy of Torment.
8. Once each players' Torment resolves, players will no longer be able to cast spells, and you can pass the turn. Your Cytoshape effects will wear off, turning all of your permanents back to normal except they will continue to be noncreature nonartifact enchantments due to the continuous effects they generated back in step six when they activated their 0 abilities as Opal Acroliths.
With this, the Wild Ride is complete. Players won't be able to cast spells (due to having previously cast a Neverending Torment), won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Null Rod + Mycosynth Lattice) or of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace), and won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper + Eon Hub). In addition, your opponents won't be able to have permanents enter the battlefield under their control (Worms of the Earth + Life and Limb and several others). With that cocktail of curses, Abyssal Persecutor and Platinum Angel finally assure an endless game of Magic for you and for your opponents.
So, there you have it. What you presumably came here to see. The flagship 23-card combo.
Sandwiching my Worms of the Earth combo into the rest of the Wild Ride required some unexpected finagling, mostly due to the inclusion of March of the Machines. As you can see, Hanna's Custody and Guardian Beast are now gone, with Privileged Position, Copy Enchantment, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope taking their place. The loss of Hanna's Custody is especially irksome considering the card not only granted our permanents shroud, but also our opponents', further hindering what little ability they had left to interact with their own cards. Unfortunately, Hanna's Custody came with two major obstacles that all but required its exclusion.
First, Hanna's Custody could only grant shroud onto artifacts. Now, that isn't problematic by itself. Mycosynth Lattice can obviously make everything an artifact. The trouble comes with the introduction of March of the Machines to the combo, as it would be nearly impossible to make everything an artifact without also causing everything to become a creature, something which had to be avoided due to the existence of Bane of the Living. And since finding a replacement for Hanna's Custody is much easier than finding a replacement for March of the Machines, the Custody had to go.
The second troublesome quality Hanna's Custody possessed is that it bestowed shroud instead of hexproof. This is why you don't see cards like Sterling Grove or Fountain Watch taking its place. Because practically all of my combo pieces need to exist on the battlefield as noncreature enchantments in order to dodge Bane of the Living, Hanna's Custody would need to be on the battlefield alongside Mycosynth Lattice prior to a Mirrorweave or Cytoshape being cast if it wanted to avoid animation via March of the Machines. See the problem here? If both Hanna's Custody and Mycosynth Lattice were on the battlefield simultaneously, all of my permanents would have shroud, and I wouldn't be able to target them with either instant. Sure, with some serious flash sequencing, it may be possible to avoid this situation, but since doing so would raise the combo's complexity even further, and considering a solution to the Wild Ride involving me specifically being unable to target my own permanents has never been discovered, I wager that any perceived advantage generated by causing my combo pieces to gain shroud as opposed to hexproof can be safely discounted. Maybe some day Wizards will print a one-sided Mirrorweave that doesn't target, and I won't have to work with this limitation. Until that happens though, Cytoshape and Mirrorweave are all I've got.
Guardian Beast exits the combo for much the same reason as Hanna's Custody. Because my combo pieces can no longer be artifacts due March of the Machines making artifacts vulnerable to Bane of the Living, Guardian Beast no longer works; artifacts must be noncreature in order to reap the benefits of the Beast, and that simply isn't possible given the form of the combo. Fortunately, an Avacyn performs much the same role as Guardian Beast, if not an identical role, as no solution to the Ride involving the unique benefits a Guardian Beast would provide has ever been discovered. The list of changes doesn't stop there though. Torpor Orb is also no longer necessary due to Worms of the Earth now shutting out permanents of all types, not just lands. After all, if permanents can't enter the battlefield at all, there's little sense in keeping around a card which only stops enter the battlefield triggers.
Sands of Time also makes an unexpected return. While trying to crack this form of the combo, I realized that because permanents wouldn't be able to enter the battlefield, any solution would likely require combobreaking cards to already be on the battlefield, just in some kind of inert state so as to not discount them as legitimate answers. With the recent printing of Teferi's Protection, phasing came back to my mind, and it was then that I realized I would need some way to skip each player's untap step in order to stop troublesome permanents from phasing in and disrupting the Ride. Previously, I circumvented the need for cards like Sands of Time by discounting phasing as a solution. After all, if I required my lock to be unimpeded by the cards initially on the battlefield, phased out permanents still counted, right? They are technically on the battlefield after all. With the combo's recent development though, I began to increasingly feel that phasing permanents in was fair game. As such, measures needed to be taken to prevent the Ride from unraveling with them.
Zada and Cytoshape replace Mirrorweave in the combo because we now care whether or not our opponents can turn their creatures into Opal Acrolith copies. In earlier forms of the combo, as outlined in Salacious Technology, turning our opponents' creatures into copies of Opal Acrolith was inconsequential. A Mycosynth Lattice would come down after the effects of Mirrorweave had ended, so any permanent that had become an enchantment would still become an artifact in addition to its other types and thus also be affected by Null Rod. With the addition of March of the Machines to the combo, this is no longer the case as all of our combo pieces (except Hive Mind) must now become copies of Opal Acrolith and not just our creature cards. If they don't, Lattice and March will just turn them into creatures, thereby exposing them to Bane of the Living. As such, the simplest fix is to stop our opponents from ever turning their cards into Acroliths in the first place. This way, they'll be unable to dodge Null Rod by turning their cards into enchantments.
Whew! Did I miss anything? I think that covers it. Oh wait. Omen Machine.
I really wish that Omen Machine could have remained a part of the Ride. Any dullard can tell you that Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor can together create an endless game. The inclusion of such cards only tends to suggest that my combo isn't as sophisticated as it actually is. In reality, I'm actually cognizant of both Shared Fate and Omen Machine each being capable of independently creating an endless game by themselves. Alas, the angel-demon duo is necessary. Without the pair, I would need to find a different way of preventing Biovisionary victories and Atraxa from proliferating lethal poison. And since the combo has become so harrowing that using anything but the fully assembled lock would likely result in malfunction, Omen Machine has now become excessive. It doesn't do anything any other part of the Ride doesn't already do. As such, it needed to go.
Prison Break
To escape this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, suppose you control an Opalescence that is currently an enchantment with no abilities due to having previously been affected by Soul Sculptor's ability. (How this Opalescence initially became a creature for Soul Sculptor to target is unimportant, but to provide one explanation, perhaps a Mirage Mirror was activated at some point and became a copy of Opalescence temporarily. This would animate the Opalescence long enough for Soul Sculptor to target it without the Opalescence also permanently becoming a creature.) Suppose you also control an Upwelling, an Eladamri's Vineyard, a face down Bane of the Living, and a face down Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
At the beginning of each of your precombat main phases, you will add GG to your mana pool with Eladamri's Vineyard. This mana will not exit your mana pool as steps and phases end due to Upwelling. Once enough turns have passed and a sufficient amount of mana has been generated this way, you can then turn your face down Vesuvan Shapeshifter face up. (The Mycosynth Lattice controlled by Mr. Bones allows players to spend mana as though it were any color.) Choose to have the Shapeshifter become a copy of Opalescence. (Opalescence is currently a creature due to Lattice and March, but still has no abilities because it still is under the effect of Soul Sculptor's ability.) When Vesuvan Shapeshifter becomes a copy of Opalescence, it will gain all of the abilities printed on the card even though the Opalescence currently has no abilities. This transformation will summarily result in all of Mr. Bones' enchantments becoming creatures with power and toughness equal to their respective CMCs. From there, you can turn your face down Bane of the Living face up, putting its triggered ability onto the stack. When it resolves, all of Mr. Bones' enchantment creatures will be put into his exile (Rest in Peace), and the Wild Ride will be disassembled.
Having discovered Soul Sculptor's ability to disrupt the Ride, I am now at an impasse. Without some way to stop players from turning their cards face up (or some way to prevent mana from entering mana pools), I cannot foresee a fix to this problem. The “perfect lock” simply doesn't exist. If you, reader, possess any knowledge leading to the further development of this combo, I implore you to reach out and contact me. Until then, the Ride ends here.
04.4b If a game that’s not using the limited range of influence option (including a two-player game) somehow enters a “loop” of mandatory actions, repeating a sequence of events with no way to stop, the game is a draw. Loops that contain an optional action don’t result in a draw.
You might be able to introduce a sacrifice creature or something else which would allow you to break the loop. So it might be that as long as you have the means yourself to break it, it might not end in a draw?
A simple silence followed by Cyclonic Rift before assembling the lock might be useful.
Depends what you mean. In practice? Sure. There are cards that can prevent the Wild Ride from assembling, and ensuring those cards aren't on the battlefield would make assembling the Ride easier. This combo isn't concerned with ease of assembly though. It just wants to demonstrate how to create an endless game of Magic in the most secure way possible without sacrificing scope in the process.
I never really got around to explaining this in the guide, but if the Wild Ride is in effect, opponents may assume to control whatever it is they want provided that no such things interfere with the Wild Ride to begin with. For example, in most versions an opponent could not assume to control a Titania's Song because if a Titania's Song were on the battlefield at the same time as the Wild Ride then the Wild Ride could not be in effect, and there would be no thought exercise with which to consider. If, after the Wild Ride had gone into effect, an opponent were to somehow manage to put something like a Titania's Song onto the battlefield, that would be considered a legitimate solution though.
You might be able to introduce a sacrifice creature or something else which would allow you to break the loop. So it might be that as long as you have the means yourself to break it, it might not end in a draw?
I haven't put much effort into trying to circumvent rule 104.4b. What I can say is that it's more difficult to circumvent than it appears to be, and that my modest attempts at doing so were rebuked by the folks in the Magic Rulings section. I can't say for certain whether or not what you're proposing will work. That's above my pay grade. I highly doubt it would be that easy though.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I haven't put much effort into trying to circumvent rule 104.4b. What I can say is that it's more difficult to circumvent than it appears to be, and that my modest attempts at doing so were rebuked by the folks in the Magic Rulings section. I can't say for certain whether or not what you're proposing will work. That's above my pay grade. I highly doubt it would be that easy though.
Wait, so they have they said that these are loops that result in draws?
I guess you could add Greater Gargadon as part of it to conclusively solve this problem, as it will mean that you can sacrifice at any time meaning that the loop can be broken, you know if you wanted to The counters won't naturally be removed either as you don't have an upkeep.
I guess you could add Greater Gargadon as part of it to conclusively solve this problem, as it will mean that you can sacrifice at any time meaning that the loop can be broken, you know if you wanted to The counters won't naturally be removed either as you don't have an upkeep.
Again, this isn't that simple. From what I understand, what you're proposing won't work.
Private Mod Note
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Again, this isn't that simple. From what I understand, what you're proposing won't work.
Alright then I feel it's possible to remove the Peacekeeper and let people have attacks. That way you can alternate the way you attack each turn, resulting in real decisions.
I can only see the real 'Prison Break' if you remove Peacekeeper is if there is some infect/wither creature or exile on damage, as Privileged Position, Copy Enchantment prevents targeted removing. Avacyn, Angel of Hope will mean creature battles should be without consequence, for you.
Question, if you're casting Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines before you do the Opal+Zada+Cytoshape thing, what is stopping your opponent from Bane of the Living in response to anything? In theory with enough mana killing the boards?
Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor don't actually do much on that front. The biggest concern with combat is allowing opponents the chance to use their creatures' triggered abilities.
It's possible. It's something I haven't considered in a while, so some of the more recent changes may have rendered them unnecessary. Removing either seems fraught with danger to me though.
Question, if you're casting Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines before you do the Opal+Zada+Cytoshape thing, what is stopping your opponent from Bane of the Living in response to anything? In theory with enough mana killing the boards?
Nothing. In an actual game of Magic, opponents could certainly interrupt the Wild Ride as it's trying to be assembled. Doing this isn't considered a solution though. They merely stopped the Ride from ever happening in the first place. The thought experiment is to try and find a way off the Ride after it has already been assembled.
Question, if you're casting Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines before you do the Opal+Zada+Cytoshape thing, what is stopping your opponent from Bane of the Living in response to anything? In theory with enough mana killing the boards?
Nothing. In an actual game of Magic, opponents could certainly interrupt the Wild Ride as it's trying to be assembled. Doing this isn't considered a solution though. They merely stopped the Ride from ever happening in the first place. The thought experiment is to try and find a way off the Ride after it has already been assembled.
Oh well, you can just cast Dismiss into Dream first, and use something like Hex Parasite to kill off your opponents creatures before you commit anything else to the board. That way you can ping off any morph creatures.
Also on a similar note, Archfiend of Ifnir could get an opponent out of the lock, if they had enough cycling cards in their hand.
So another reason to add the Hex Parasite to be able to kill off creatures first.
[EDIT]
If you could clarify, the Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines should make all your permanents artifact creatures. So even if you use Opal Acrolith to make them enchantments, I believe they will be "artifact enchantments", and so therefore still be creatures from the March of the Machines?
Please let me know if there is some sequencing or timing I'm missing out on, as it's pretty complicated interactions.
Oh well, you can just cast Dismiss into Dream first, and use something like Hex Parasite to kill off your opponents creatures before you commit anything else to the board. That way you can ping off any morph creatures.
In practice? Sure. You could remove morphs this way. Doing so would reduce the scope of the combo though. That defeats the purpose since now you're essentially denying opponents the freedom to assume control of whatever they want (as well as basically conceding that morphs are a legitimate solution to the problem at hand).
Also on a similar note, Archfiend of Ifnir could get an opponent out of the lock, if they had enough cycling cards in their hand.
While it's true that the Wild Ride does not stop players from activating abilities of cards in their hand (as well as in exile and the command zone), none of Mr. Bones' cards are creatures due to Opal Acrolith, so Archfiend of Ifnir will not be able to undo the lock. If a player were to somehow turn Mr. Bones' permanents back into creatures after the Wild Ride had been assembled, then an Archfiend could be used.
Private Mod Note
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WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
If you could clarify, the Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines should make all your permanents artifact creatures. So even if you use Opal Acrolith to make them enchantments, I believe they will be "artifact enchantments", and so therefore still be creatures from the March of the Machines?
Please let me know if there is some sequencing or timing I'm missing out on, as it's pretty complicated interactions.
I discuss this in the Salacious Technology section where the Opal Acrolith combo is first introduced.
Mycosynth Lattice's first ability is a continous effect that changes each permanent's card type in layer 4. Opal Acrolith's second ability also creates a continuous effect in layer 4. Because two different continuous effects are being applied in the same layer and because neither are dependent upon the other (which is to say that the order of the effects doesn't matter here), the game determines the order of the effects via timestamps. (The continuous effect generated first will be applied first, and the continuous effect generated second will be applied second.)
For example, if Mycosynth Lattice entered the battlefield first and turned everything into an artifact, and then Opal Acrolith activated its second ability, the Acrolith would gain the artifact card type from Lattice before subsequently overwriting it with its second ability, making the Acrolith an enchantment with no other card types.
If, on the other hand, the order of effects were reversed (perhaps because Mycosynth Lattice was played after Opal Acrolith had already used its second ability), then Opal Acrolith would first overwrite its existing card types, becoming an enchantment, and then become an artifact in addition to its other types, making it an artifact enchantment at the end of the process.
As you can see, the order of the effects matters here. When applied in one direction, the Acrolith becomes an enchantment. When applied in the other direction, the Acrolith becomes an artifact enchantment. For this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, the goal is to have all your Opal Acroliths become artifact enchantments, so they can be preserved by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
The most recent Ixalan Comp Rules version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride orders these effects the other way so that all of Mr. Bones' permanents will be nonartifact enchantments and therefore won't be affected by March of the Machines.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WUBRGMr. Bones' Wild RideGRBUW Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
If you could clarify, the Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines should make all your permanents artifact creatures. So even if you use Opal Acrolith to make them enchantments, I believe they will be "artifact enchantments", and so therefore still be creatures from the March of the Machines?
Please let me know if there is some sequencing or timing I'm missing out on, as it's pretty complicated interactions.
I discuss this in the Salacious Technology section where the Opal Acrolith combo is first introduced.
Mycosynth Lattice's first ability is a continous effect that changes each permanent's card type in layer 4. Opal Acrolith's second ability also creates a continuous effect in layer 4. Because two different continuous effects are being applied in the same layer and because neither are dependent upon the other (which is to say that the order of the effects doesn't matter here), the game determines the order of the effects via timestamps. (The continuous effect generated first will be applied first, and the continuous effect generated second will be applied second.)
For example, if Mycosynth Lattice entered the battlefield first and turned everything into an artifact, and then Opal Acrolith activated its second ability, the Acrolith would gain the artifact card type from Lattice before subsequently overwriting it with its second ability, making the Acrolith an enchantment with no other card types.
If, on the other hand, the order of effects were reversed (perhaps because Mycosynth Lattice was played after Opal Acrolith had already used its second ability), then Opal Acrolith would first overwrite its existing card types, becoming an enchantment, and then become an artifact in addition to its other types, making it an artifact enchantment at the end of the process.
As you can see, the order of the effects matters here. When applied in one direction, the Acrolith becomes an enchantment. When applied in the other direction, the Acrolith becomes an artifact enchantment. For this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, the goal is to have all your Opal Acroliths become artifact enchantments, so they can be preserved by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
The most recent Ixalan Comp Rules version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride orders these effects the other way so that all of Mr. Bones' permanents will be nonartifact enchantments and therefore won't be affected by March of the Machines.
Ha, nice. I'm a nerd I love this sort of stuff.
There is the possibility of working in Overwhelming Splendor as a one sided Humility as that stops morphs I believe?
Because at the end of the day you have to commit your creatures to the board and put Opal Acrolith effects afterwards, so in a real game you would fall victim to a Bane of the Living. I know it's all hypothetical but you would want to structure it, so the very thing you're trying to play around, isn't actually going to get you.
You need to copy the Overwhelming Splendor to all opponents, because the thought experiment would have to assume that all players might have morph creatures / Archfiend of Ifnir.
But this is tricky right as most of these come off as one-for-one and you have to assume any number of opponents.
It might be that Echo Storm is the method to make sure of any number of opponents, by having some infinite with your commander. There are other infinite's with Saheeli, the Gifted and probably Saheeli Rai as well, but this is adding a lot of complexity.
Of course in practicality there is probably likely to be only one opponent with morph creatures (if any), but I see where you are coming from.
There is the possibility of working in Overwhelming Splendor as a one sided Humility as that stops morphs I believe?
Overwhelming Splendor is a really interesting card in that it universally shuts out activated abilities from all zones. It doesn't even care if the source is an emblem. If it's an activated ability, and it isn't a mana or loyalty ability, Overwhelming Splendor will shut it off. That's incredibly valuable since virtually no other cards do that. Unfortunately, Overwhelming Splendor is also a pain in the ass to use.
First, it's an aura, and that's bad news because of March of the Machines. Overwhelming Splendor cannot ever become a creature since a card enchanting another card will implode if it becomes a creature. To ensure that it doesn't become one to Lattice + March though, it would need to become a copy of Opal Acrolith first (which would also require it to become a creature), and that isn't possible, so there's really no way to use the card.
Second, the Humility part of the card narrows the scope of the combo. That's super lame since narrowing the scope basically confesses that some subset of creatures can create legitimate solutions to the combo. Taken to the extreme, it's possible to forbid all cards. What makes the Ride interesting is that, rather than forbidding opponents the tools they need to escape, the Ride just makes escaping hard. Really hard.
Because at the end of the day you have to commit your creatures to the board and put Opal Acrolith effects afterwards, so in a real game you would fall victim to a Bane of the Living. I know it's all hypothetical but you would want to structure it, so the very thing you're trying to play around, isn't actually going to get you.
Not necessarily. A player might not have the mana they need to disrupt the Wild Ride with a Bane of the Living while the combo is being assembled for example.
First, it's an aura, and that's bad news because of March of the Machines. Overwhelming Splendor cannot ever become a creature since a card enchanting another card will implode if it becomes a creature.
It's not enchanting a card, it's enchanting a player, so I doubt it will fall off anything.
Not necessarily. A player might not have the mana they need to disrupt the Wild Ride with a Bane of the Living while the combo is being assembled for example.
The problem is that they can just put mana into their mana pool, in response to what you're doing. The can just follow suit on what your a doing until a Null Rod is on the stack, and you have to then float your mana as well.
I guess I understand wanting to make the combo function outside of Humility but I think it's really the only way to universally stop all potential morph situations. However, it can also be an aspect of preventing the game from locking due to rule 104.4b. If everything your opponents control is a vanilla 1/1 but you maintain your key pieces as enchantments due to the Acrolith then you no longer need to worry about attack and block triggers, right? So enchantment-ified Fumiko plus Angel's Trumpet plus Bedlam should ensure varying combat steps across the infinite void of the ride, preventing a looping draw, right? Or am I missing something in the interactions? Should there be a Bubble Matrix in there even if nothing can block?
It's not enchanting a card, it's enchanting a player, so I doubt it will fall off anything.
Sorry. I misspoke. An aura enchanting anything will implode if it becomes a creature. See comp rule 303.4d.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules »
303.4d An Aura can’t enchant itself. If this occurs somehow, the Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard. An Aura that’s also a creature can’t enchant anything. If this occurs somehow, the Aura becomes unattached, then is put into its owner’s graveyard. (These are state-based actions. See rule 704.) An Aura can’t enchant more than one object or player. If a spell or ability would cause an Aura to become attached to more than one object or player, the Aura’s controller chooses which object or player it becomes attached to.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules »
704.5m If an Aura is attached to an illegal object or player, or is not attached to an object or player, that Aura is put into its owner’s graveyard.
EDIT: I guess I should have explained that even if an Overwhelming Splendor were to somehow become a copy of Opal Acrolith, it would unattach to whatever player it was previously attached to. It would then be put into the graveyard once it reverts back to being an Overwhelming Splendor since it would then not be attached to anything.
Quote from Comprehensive Rules »
704.5p If a creature is attached to an object or player, it becomes unattached and remains on the battlefield. Similarly, if a permanent that’s neither an Aura, an Equipment, nor a Fortification is attached to an object or player, it becomes unattached and remains on the battlefield.
The problem is that they can just put mana into their mana pool, in response to what you're doing. The can just follow suit on what your a doing until a Null Rod is on the stack, and you have to then float your mana as well.
I'm not sure you're following me. All I was trying to do was show that it's possible for a player to control a Bane of the Living and still not be able to disrupt the Wild Ride as it's being assembled (perhaps because that player doesn't have enough untapped mana to turn it face up at that moment).
Realistically, players will always be able to thwart the Wild Ride as it's being assembled. They don't even need something like Bane of the Living to do it. A simple Counterspell will suffice in many places. This combo isn't concerned about that though since no combo can be assembled with impunity. (And even if one could, the impunity one acquired to do so could not be assembled with impunity, and so on, and so forth.)
I guess I understand wanting to make the combo function outside of Humility but I think it's really the only way to universally stop all potential morph situations.
Currently? I think so too. It's entirely possible that Wizards prints something some day like "Face down creatures cannot be turned face up." or some such. Right now, I'm perfectly happy with Soul Sculptor being the only card I know of that can disrupt the Wild Ride though.
However, it can also be an aspect of preventing the game from locking due to rule 104.4b. If everything your opponents control is a vanilla 1/1 but you maintain your key pieces as enchantments due to the Acrolith then you no longer need to worry about attack and block triggers, right? So enchantment-ified Fumiko plus Angel's Trumpet plus Bedlam should ensure varying combat steps across the infinite void of the ride, preventing a looping draw, right? Or am I missing something in the interactions? Should there be a Bubble Matrix in there even if nothing can block?
You have to be careful with this. It's possible that combat may be able to circumvent rule 104.4b, but I'm not entirely sure. Opponents can't be forced to attack (except by the effect of some card), and if an opponent were forced to attack then there's no longer a choice to be made there. It may be possible that who opponents choose to attack and with what creatures they choose to attack with circumvents rule 104.4b, but I think there's a lot to account for, and that could easily go astray. Even if it were to work, players would have to have creatures in play with which to attack with, and they would have to never end up in a state where they could become tapped due to Sands of Time. (So Angel's Trumpet wouldn't work, but Synchronous Sliver + Artificial Evolution naming Saproling or Illusion would.) Even then, that angle still seems very unlikely to me.
There is this Black Mirror episode (spoiler) where some people are trapped in a virtual world. It got me thinking about not only trapping opponents, but making them play eternal Magic?
Shahrazad came to mind, and would've been perfect, but unfortunately it's banned.
So I been thinking about what type of Magic can still be played inside a locked game state, that doesn't threaten to break the lock?
Something where the opponents can actually do something. One thing that seems harmless is flipping coins.
So this is a bit of a different spin on the whole idea, but the idea is that you infinitely cast something like Game of Chaos. This will get around any game locked draw states as well.
So it's another layer of complexity, but I'll just lay it out.
You have to be able cast it, so you're going to need to counter your own Neverending Torment to start with. So something like Ertai, Wizard Adept.
When you cast it, it will go onto the bottom, so eventually you'll always draw it again to cast it.
The cool thing is that because of Hive Mind, all your opponents will also make a copy of the spell (Hive Mind is not "cast" for the copies), so you get to play a bunch of Game of Chaos. You know so everybody is going to be included in the games no matter what, just as Richard Garfield intended.
Now who wouldn't want to be flipping coins forever? If anybody else has some harmless sub-games that could be played please let me know?
Not only that, but Eon Hub makes it so that Worms of the Earth will never trigger in the first place.
To be fair though, this sort of interaction is something I should have explicitly spelled out at the beginning of my guide right after the introduction. I just sort of got sick of writing it after having worked on it on and off for two or so years, and since there was no way I wasn't not going to publish it, I just went ahead and posted it full well knowing some information would be missing. My apologies for any confusion I may have caused. I just knew I needed to move on, and I wasn't going to work on this anymore.
I suppose Mr. Bones isn't much of a "deck" anymore though. I mean, I've played with this combo in various Commander decks over the years (the decks surrounding the combo are almost another topic entirely), but I've never really felt like I've ever assembled a deck for this combo that I'm truly proud of and happy to showcase. Hence, the lack of an actual decklist anywhere in this guide. Still, I'm happy to accept any praise you might have for it, decklist or otherwise.
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I suppose Mr. Bones isn't much of a "deck" anymore though. I mean, I've played with this combo in various Commander decks over the years (the decks surrounding the combo are almost another topic entirely)
I am severely interested in any sort of list you might be able to share. Even if you feel like you never got to an optimized deck, know that you would at least make me very happy by allowing me to peruse it.
I am severely interested in any sort of list you might be able to share. Even if you feel like you never got to an optimized deck, know that you would at least make me very happy by allowing me to peruse it.
Okay. High effort post. I haven't done any extensive writing in a while, and this gives me a good enough excuse to do that despite a lot of burnout right now.
This unholy amalgamation of pet cards I just put together represents a "best of" or a "classic" Mr. Bones deck list. It contains all the most notable cards I've played over the years. It doesn't promise anything. It certainly doesn't promise to be good. In fact, its primary defense mechanism is being so bad that your opponents don't waste their resources going after you because you're no threat to them whatsoever. But you knew this was going to be a bad deck, right? It's hard to clog your deck full of otherwise worthless cards and still come out with something reasonable. Defenselessness coupled with a smattering of last minute "please don't kill me" cards like Solitary Confinement, Peacekeeper, and Platinum Angel (which, coincidentally, are also all combo pieces) are just enough to get this deck to work sometimes.
Some notes:
Because you can't feasibly assemble the Mr. Bones combo in an actual game of Commander, you need a different combo — an assembly combo — to get the deck to work. This becomes the basis of the deck. You try to find your assembly combo, cast it, and then construct the Wild Ride.
Now, there are many different ways to go about building an assembly combo, some much better than others. Most Rube Goldbergs start their combo by obtaining infinite mana or by playing some kind of two card combo a la OmniscienceEnter the Infinite. This, in my not so humble opinion, is an incredibly stupid way to go about making one's combo. Is it efficient? Yes, of course, but it misses the point entirely. Once you've obtained infinite mana, drawn your entire deck, etc., the game is already over. You've effectively won the game. From there, nobody is going to sit around and wait for you to go through the motions especially if they know it takes a long time for you to execute your combo like Mr. Bones does. And if your opponents are both patient and curious enough to sit around and watch you do your victory lap, it is only by their good graces. If all they wanted to do was find out how your combo worked, then there was never any need to show them ingame where they would effectively be held hostage. Instead, you could have just shown them outside that context and saved all parties involved a significant amount of time. You're not clogging your deck with almost two dozen cards just to see your opponents pack up before the show has even started, so if you want to actually demonstrate your combo ingame (and I imagine you do), then the assembly combo can't win the game in and of itself. The Wild Ride has to be what actually brings the game to an end. That means it must be assembled throughout the course of the game and not at the tail end of it as a result of winning.
Combo tells a bad story - especially from the perspective of the other players. They were slugging it out with creatures, removal, combat, maybe gaining ground or losing it, and then suddenly the game is over and they lose. It's like if you were watching Star Wars, rooting for the rebels in each successive battle, and then in the last 5 minutes beings from the 5th dimension show up and explode everyone with a heretofore unmentioned superweapon. If a game of magic was a movie, everyone would think a combo win was a lame deus ex machina that rendered the rest of the story pointless.
How do you make the 5th-dimensional beings in Star Wars work? Well, if everyone knew they were charging up a superweapon, then it feels less like a deus ex machina, and if the rebels and empire were working together to fight against it then it doesn't render the rest of the story pointless. The things that make combo feel less anticlimactic are basically the same - if everyone knows you have a combo, and everyone has ways to interact with it, then it won't be quite such a bad story.
Building the Ride as the game is being played comes with some challenges. Namely, once certain pieces are in play, they tend to restrict your own ability to assemble the rest of the lock. For this reason, most combo pieces can't be run out one at a time and need to be put onto the battlefield simultaneously. That's also problematic since most of the cards that do that aren't also superweapons that can be charged up.
Over the years, my preferred way to assemble Mr. Bones Wild Ride has been with Pyxis of Pandemonium. It allows me to squirrel my combo pieces away in a pocket dimension until I'm ready to unleash them all at once. And by using cards like Lens of Clarity, Scroll Rack, Academy Ruins, Penance, and Vampiric Tutor, I can manipulate the top card of my library to ensure it's something I always want in the box. Many players are excited to see me open it, enticed by the prospect of free permanents, and will often leave the card alone as you're charging it up. Sure, they know you're up to something; they can see you putting something inside that Pyxis, but unless they've played you before, they honestly won't have a clue. That can translate into a bad feeling for some players, but most often players leave you alone thinking you're some kind of weird hug deck. They do want their cards back after all.
Of course, exiling one card per turn is way too slow to ever make work, so I need to include cards like Voltaic Key, Seedborn Muse, and Unwinding Clock to speed up the process. Even with these cards, it still takes a ton of time to get going, but that's not a bad thing. Again, players need to see you charge up your superweapon (although, at the time, they might not realize it is, in fact, a superweapon).
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I'm quitting Magic. I've realized I cannot become the person I need to become while playing this game, so I'm going to release something that I've worked on for well over a year at this point: a guide to my Commander deck, Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. It isn't finished, nor will it ever be, but by releasing it I'm hoping that someone somewhere may find value in its contents nonetheless. Mods, if you feel this isn't the appropriate section for whatever reason, feel free to move this thread where ever.EDIT: So, I may have announced my retirement a tad early. It looks like I'm still playing Magic, and I have more new decks than I've ever had. Mr. Bones' Wild Ride is still a project I have sidelined. I don't think there's any more room for it to grow, at least given the current cardpool, but I'll routinely check up on this thread in case anyone is interested in continuing the discussion.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I’m not being figurative here. Once this combo is in place, your game literally will not end.
THE RIDE NEVER ENDS
Howdy, folks!
My name is Michael Murphy (arrogantAxolotl here at MTGS), and this is Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. Originally conceived by local Houston Magic player Seth Lede, Mr. Bones' Wild Ride is a combo deck based on the 4chan meme of the same name. Its goal, unlike most Magic decks, is not to actually win the game. Rather, Mr. Bones seeks to trap each player in an endless game of Magic. What do I mean by that? Well, by constructing an intricate 23-card combo (yes, you read that right. A 23-card combo), it's entirely possible to stop a game of Magic. Not end it. Stop it. Players won't be able to win. Players won't be able to lose. And they'll all just be sort of stuck there, passing the turn forever and ever, never able to leave...
Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it?
This thread aims to immortalize my personal Rube Goldberg machine. If you enjoy wacky decks, rules headaches, and excessively long combos, then this is the place for you.
Just Who the Heck Are You Again?
I'm Michael Murphy, a mad scientist from Houston, Texas. For over two plus years, I've explored the idea of creating the perfect lock. In doing so, I may have taken the idea further than anyone else alive.
Having played Magic on and off since Darksteel, I first became enthralled with Commander about the time of Khans of Tarkir's release. At the time, I had a very clear goal. I wanted to build a Zedruu deck. And not just your typical bad Christmas Zedruu either. I wanted to build the "perfect" deck, a deck which could create the most interesting games of Magic possible.
Determined to build this mythical deck, I experimented for months, yet despite my best efforts, I failed in my endeavor. Crafting such a masterpiece was simply beyond my abilities. Defeated, I turned to new commanders in an effort to find something fresh. Moving from one deck to the next, I felt increasingly dissatisfied with everything I tried though. Nothing I played felt original. Nothing felt like it belonged to me. It was during this nadir of mine that fellow Magic player Seth Lede spoke to me about an idea of his. What if it were possible to stop the game? Not end it. Just, like, bring it to a halt. Make it so that players can't actually do anything, and they all have to sit there because their game is stuck, and there's nothing they can do about it.
Seth's idea spoke to me. Although he didn't seem to realize it, Seth's idea was SOLID GOLD. A deck that could break Magic? I had never heard of such a thing. I mean, sure. Combos that couldn't self-terminate? That went on and on forever? I knew all about those. But this deck was different, so different in fact that I wasn't exactly sure if building it would even be possible, at least not without getting stuck in some kind of loop.
Knowing full well that Seth's idea was too good to give up (and that he wouldn't be doing anything with it), it was up to me to make his idea a reality. After poring through Gatherer for nearly a month, I began to sculpt the very first version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. It was rough, but it looked a little something like—
Eon Hub
Maralen of the Mornsong
Mindlock Orb
Worms of the Earth
Hive Mind
Neverending Torment
Mycosynth Lattice
Stony Silence
Yixlid Jailer
Peacekeeper
Abyssal Persecutor
Platinum Angel
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield (which is everything except for Neverending Torment). Before doing that though, you will need to float at least 6 mana since Lattice and Stony Silence will prevent you from tapping your lands for mana once they're on the battlefield.
Once everything is in place, use your floating mana to cast Neverending Torment. (Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Hive Mind, and each opponent will receive a copy of Neverending Torment. Who you choose to target with your instance of Neverending Torment is mostly irrelevant as you'll see in the description to come.
Once each player has resolved their copy of Neverending Torment, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Stony Silence) and of cards in graveyards (Yixlid Jailer). In addition, players will lose 3 life during their draw steps via Maralen of the Mornsong, but fail to search their libraries due to Mindlock Orb. Abyssal Persecutor will prevent your opponents from losing to Maralen, and Platinum Angel will prevent you from losing in kind.
As you can see, when I couldn't find a way to skip a step, I did my best to make that step as useless as possible. Debatably, the success of this and future versions of the Ride was largely due to me recognizing that there are really only four kinds of actions a player can effectively take in a game of Magic.
1. Players can cast spells.
2. Players can activate abilities.
3. Players can play land cards.
4. Players can attack and block with creatures.
By preventing players from taking any of the four actions above, an endless game can be created provided some combination of cards can stop players from losing the game (Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor in this case). After all, if nothing in play can end the game, and the status quo can't change, then nothing can disrupt the Ride.
Because effectively stopping players from casting spells is not the same as actually stopping players from casting spells. With Teferi and Knowledge Pool, players can still cast spells; doing so is just usually worthless. Note the word "usually" here. That's important. Since Teferi and Knowledge Pool don't actually stop players from casting spells, players could still use cast triggers from cards like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to try and escape. Furthermore, because Knowledge Pool only exiles spells cast from a player's hand, players could still cast their commanders, not to mention any cards exiled by Omen Machine. Those vulnerabilities are massive, and Neverending Torment does a much better job shoring those up than Teferi and Knowledge Pool ever could.
Sadly, yes.
While rule 104.4b looks easy enough to subvert, I can say with confidence that it is actually more difficult than it appears. Currently, I do not possess an understanding of the rules expansive enough to subvert it. As such, I like to pretend that each game I play is one using the range of influence option and that that range of influence is also needlessly excessive. Doing so helps circumvent 104.4b in the meantime.
Worms of the Earth
Eon Hub
Hive Mind
Neverending Torment
Mycosynth Lattice
Null Rod
Rest in Peace
One with Nothing
Peacekeeper
Platinum Angel
Abyssal Persecutor
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Darksteel Forge
Hanna's Custody
Solitary Confinement
Torpor Orb
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, simply follow the directions for the previous version. You will need to float 7 mana and then put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield. It is important you float your mana before putting these cards into play because once Lattice and Null Rod are on the battlefield you won't be able to tap your lands for mana.
Once everything is in place, use 6 of your floating mana to cast Neverending Torment. (Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Hive Mind, and each opponent will receive a copy of the epic spell. (Who you target with Neverending Torment is largely irrelevant.) Don't let any of those Torments resolve though. Instead, hold priority, and then use the last of your mana to cast One with Nothing. Hive Mind will trigger again, and your opponents will each produce a copy of One with Nothing for themselves. Now resolve the stack.
One with Nothing will resolve first, and each player will discard their hand. Afterwards, Neverending Torment will resolve, and each player will attempt to exile cards from someone's library. Because players just discarded their hands though, they likely won't be able to exile any cards with Torment (not that that matters).
Once all the Neverending Torments resolve, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Stony Silence). Players will further be unable to activate abilities of cards in hand (One with Nothing) and of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace) because no cards will be in those zones with which to activate. Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor will then stop players from winning or losing the game. (If only the first block of cards was put onto the battlefield, Omen Machine will fulfill this role instead.)
In Magic, there are several ways to lose the game. Players can lose by drawing from an empty library, by having 0 or less life, or by gaining 10 or more poison counters. Some cards like Glorious End can even cause players to lose the game outright. Despite these different lose conditions, there is only one way for players to naturally lose the game, and that's by drawing a card from an empty library. This is because players are required to draw a card each turn. Libraries are finite, and when a player runs out of cards, that's it. Game over. Players don't innately take damage, and they don't innately receive poison counters, but they do innately draw cards each turn. That's why, if I ever wanted to create an endless game of Magic, I knew I would first need to stop the game from ending itself.
Enter Omen Machine. Omen Machine was perhaps the greatest influence on the entire Mr. Bones combo because its discovery led me to the realization that, undisrupted, a single card could stop players from losing the game via natural means. Yes, Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor could together accomplish the same effect, but with this artifact, only a single card would be necessary. By preventing players from drawing cards, Omen Machine makes losing the game by drawing from an empty library simply impossible.
The card's backstory in relation to the Ride is something I also find a bit interesting. When I first began inventing the Ride, I neglected Omen Machine as a combo piece entirely. This was because of how I conducted my research. Believing I would want to remove each of Magic's phases, I pored over Gatherer for cards pertaining to each of those phases sequentially. When I arrived at the draw step, I hadn't introduced Worms of the Earth or Neverending Torment to the combo yet, two cards which would be critical for mitigating Omen Machine's drawback. Suspecting I would never find a way to circumvent Omen Machine's draw step trigger (something which would very much threaten to undo the Ride if not addressed), I glossed over it and eventually moved on to Maralen of the Mornsong. In retrospect, neither Maralen nor the Mindlock Orb that accompanied her were ever truly necessary. Omen Machine would have performed the exact same role without requiring any additional cards to support it. (Worms of the Earth and Neverending Torment would see play in the combo regardless.)
So, having realized that the Mr. Bones combo would never need anything as sophisticated as a 23-card combo to create an endless game of Magic, that it would only ever need a single card, Omen Machine, to do so, I came to the unsurprising conclusion that just because a card like Omen Machine could create an endless game by itself doesn't mean it ever would. In fact, because Omen Machine plays free cards each turn, it would be incredibly unlikely for Omen Machine to not bring about the end of the game. Players would inevitably cast something that killed one another. That, or destroy Omen Machine itself. For those reasons, I knew if I ever wanted to achieve my goal, I would need to do more than just put Omen Machine into play. I would need to create a framework that protected it and ensured none of my opponents could ever change the status quo.
The Extended Combo, named for the way I "extended" the primary lock, was a major evolution in the Mr. Bones combo, spending most of its life in this version. The core cards, listed in the first block with Omen Machine, formed the foundation of the combo. They served to limit each player's freedom as discussed at length in the previous section. Without them, an endless game would almost certainly never exist. The second chunk of cards (Platinum Angel onward) make up the "extended" part of the combo. These cards don't restrict players in the same way the core cards do; they are merely auxiliary pieces used to protect the combo from corner case scenarios.
Different from the previous version is the exclusion of Maralen and Mindlock Orb. With Omen Machine supplanting the two as the combo's primary vehicle for game perpetuation, there's no longer any need to directly address loss of life. As such, Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor can now be safely relegated to the optional part of the Ride seeing as the two fliers don't stop core functions like Null Rod or Neverending Torment do.
To escape this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, suppose you control an Upwelling, an Eladamri's Vineyard, and a face down Bane of the Living.
At the beginning of each of your precombat main phases, you will add GG to your mana pool with Eladamri's Vineyard. This mana will not exit your mana pool as steps and phases end due to Upwelling. Once enough turns have passed and a sufficient amount of mana has been generated this way, you can then turn your face down Bane of the Living face up. (The Mycosynth Lattice controlled by Mr. Bones allows players to spend mana as though it were any color.) Bane of the Living's triggered ability will then go on the stack. When it resolves, all of Mr. Bones' creatures will be put into his exile (Rest in Peace), and the Wild Ride will be disassembled.
I am not the first person who's tried to create the perfect lock. Many magicians before me have given it their best efforts, and their fruits tend to look much like my Extended Combo: seemingly airtight but utterly helpless against Bane of the Living. Indeed, by turning a face down Bane of the Living face up, any player can unravel such a lock by reducing each creature's toughness to 0. And since turning a card face up isn't an activated ability — it's a special action — Null Rod can't stop it, a quirk that allows morphs to uniquely disrupt these combos. This represented an enormous obstacle due to the Wild Ride's reliance on a few specific creature cards. Indestructibility won't save creatures from state based actions, and no cards exist which prevent players from turning their creatures face up, at least not without causing creatures to lose their abilities outright. Even if such cards did exist, they likely wouldn't be of much help. Players would inevitably find other ways to wipe my creatures with fatigue, no morph shenanigans necessary.
To combat Bane of the Living, I tried a number of things. I tried preventing cards from turning face up. No dice. I also tried preventing mana from entering mana pools. No luck there either. Then I got a different idea. What if I didn't play any creatures? An impossible feat given the combo's dependence on certain creature cards, but if I could turn said creatures into noncreature permanents (and not lose their abilities in the process) I needn't worry about Bane of the Living ever again. I would have no creatures with which to lose to it!
For months, I sought a way to accomplish this. I looked for a way to graft my creature's abilities onto other noncreature cards. That proved to be a dead end. Then I tried turning my creatures into noncreature permanents. Most abilities that change a card's type go the other way around though, and the few that don't tend to cause ability loss. No matter what I tried, nothing seemed to work, and after a while, I gave up on the task entirely. Then, one day, while lurking through the magicTCG subreddit, I stumbled across a thread involving difficult cards for judges. It was there I found Opal Acrolith, and I immediately knew I had struck gold.
To permanently transform your creatures into noncreature enchantments, you will need an Opal Acrolith to be on the battlefield alongside every other creature you wish to transform.
Cast Mirrorweave targeting Opal Acrolith. (Opal Acrolith will need to be a creature in order for you to do this.) When Mirrorweave resolves, all creatures, including your opponents', will become copies of Opal Acrolith until end of turn. Since animation isn't a copiable characteristic, the Opal Acrolith copies won't immediately become creatures; they'll be enchantments as printed on the Opal Acrolith card itself. This shouldn't matter since the state of your Acrolith copies isn't pertinent to the combo. It is merely useful to know.
Once every creature has become an Opal Acrolith, activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths that you wish to permanently remain enchantments. (Your Acroliths don't need to be creatures to do this.) When Mirrorweave wears off at the end of the turn, any creature that used its 0 ability while it was an Opal Acrolith will remain an enchantment indefinitely due to the continuous effect it generated in layer 4.
NOTE: In the event an opponent casts a creature spell before Mirrorweave wears off, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again in order for them to remain enchantments. Any Acrolith that doesn't will become a soldier creature with base power and toughness 2/4 post-Mirrorweave.
Having discovered how to avoid the Bane's ill effects, this technology can now be married to the rest of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride.
Worms of the Earth
Eon Hub
Hive Mind
Neverending Torment
Mycosynth Lattice
Null Rod
Rest in Peace
One with Nothing
Peacekeeper
Opal Acrolith
Mirrorweave
Platinum Angel
Abyssal Persecutor
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Guardian Beast
Hanna's Custody
Solitary Confinement
Torpor Orb
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the following steps in order.
1. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Lattice and Hive Mind.
First, in order to avoid Bane of the Living, each creature must activate its second ability while it's a copy of Opal Acrolith. If Mycosynth Lattice were on the battlefield at this time, the 0 ability would overwrite the Lattice's first ability, and your creature cards would no longer be artifacts after Mirrorweave expires. As such, they would no longer be protected by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
Second, you will need to cast Mirrorweave on Opal Acrolith in order to make your creatures into copies of it. That would be impossible if Mycosynth Lattice were on the battlefield since Hanna's Custody would give your Acrolith shroud.
Third, you will need to cast spells during different turns and phases. This will be difficult for you without some way to stop mana from leaving your mana pool as Null Rod will prevent you from tapping your lands for mana once Mycosynth Lattice is on the battlefield. As such, you won't be able to simply float all the mana you need first.
3. Activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths, then pass the turn, ending the effects of Mirrorweave. In the event an opponent somehow casts a creature spell after you've activated your Acroliths but before the turn has ended, you will need to activate your Acroliths again to ensure they remain enchantments.
4. Once Mirrorweave has worn off, float 7 mana, then put Lattice and Hive Mind onto the battlefield. (The order these two cards enter the battlefield is unimportant.) It is important you float your mana before putting these cards into play because once Lattice and Null Rod are on the battlefield together, you won't be able to tap your lands for mana. From there, Lattice will make each permanent an artifact in addition to its other types. Your creature cards should now be artifact enchantments with no other card types.
For example, if Mycosynth Lattice entered the battlefield first and turned everything into an artifact, and then Opal Acrolith activated its second ability, the Acrolith would gain the artifact card type from Lattice before subsequently overwriting it with its second ability, making the Acrolith an enchantment with no other card types.
If, on the other hand, the order of effects were reversed (perhaps because Mycosynth Lattice was played after Opal Acrolith had already used its second ability), then Opal Acrolith would first overwrite its existing card types, becoming an enchantment, and then become an artifact in addition to its other types, making it an artifact enchantment at the end of the process.
As you can see, the order of the effects matters here. When applied in one direction, the Acrolith becomes an enchantment. When applied in the other direction, the Acrolith becomes an artifact enchantment. For this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, the goal is to have all your Opal Acroliths become artifact enchantments, so they can be preserved by Hanna's Custody and by Guardian Beast.
One with Nothing will resolve first, and each player will discard their hand. Afterwards, Neverending Torment will resolve, and each player will attempt to exile cards from some player's library. Because each player just discarded their hand to One with Nothing, it is unlikely any cards will be exiled with Neverending Torment (not that this matters).
6. Once all Neverending Torments have resolved, the Wild Ride will be in effect, and players will no longer be able to cast spells. In addition, players won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper), won't be able to play land cards (Worms of the Earth), and won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Null Rod). Players will further be unable to activate abilities of cards in hand (One with Nothing) and of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace) because no cards will be in those zones with which to activate. Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor will stop players from winning and losing the game or Omen Machine depending upon the extent of the combo in play.
Aside from the inclusion of the Acrolith combo, not much has changed with this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. Since all of my permanents are noncreature artifacts now, Guardian Beast does get to stand in for Darksteel Forge though, preventing players from enchanting or gaining control of any of my permanents. This may seem like a strict upgrade from Darksteel Forge, but it is worth noting that the Beast's effects only apply while the card is untapped. As such, any effect that could cause Guardian Beast to tap could threaten the security of the entire Ride.
Now, I have never found a way for my opponents to tap Guardian Beast, so that vulnerability may not seem critical, but I have also never found a way for my opponents to enchant or gain control of any of my permanents either, so it's entirely possible that I'm just trading one set of weaknesses for another. In the event that one of these cards proves fallible though, the other could obviously take its place.
To escape this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, suppose you control an Oblivion Ring which previously exiled a Consulate Crackdown you owned and you have a Greater Gargadon suspended.
Sacrifice Oblivion Ring to Greater Gargadon's ability. (Oblivion Ring is an artifact due to Mycosynth Lattice.) This will trigger Oblivion Ring's second ability, returning Consulate Crackdown from exile to the battlefield. When the Crackdown enters play, all of Mr. Bones' artifacts will be exiled, and the Wild Ride will be disassembled.
After having made the realization that solutions to the Ride would always exist provided players could find ways to cheat cards into play, I became convinced that the only hope for the Mr. Bones combo rested upon stopping permanents from entering the battlefield outright. Never would there exist a combination of cards powerful enough to stop each and every thing an opponent could possibly put into play. If I wanted to ensure no new card could interfere with my combo, I would have to stop permanents from coming into play altogether.
Worms of the Earth prevents players from playing lands. More importantly, Worms of the Earth stops lands from entering play. That made me wonder. Would it be possible to make permanents enter the battlefield as lands? If so, would Worms of the Earth prevent those cards from entering play?
March of the Machines
Dismiss into Dream
Life and Limb
Artificial Evolution
To turn all opposing permanents into lands, put each of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield, then cast Artificial Evolution targeting either Dismiss into Dream or Life and Limb. If you choose Dismiss into Dream, textchange Illusion to Saproling. If you choose Life and Limb, textchange Saproling to Illusion. This will ensure that, whatever you choose, the creature types printed on the two cards will synch up.
The result? Mycosynth Lattice will turn all permanents into artifacts. March of the Machines will further turn them into creatures. Dismiss into Dream will grant each of your opponents' permanents (since they're all creatures now) a new creature type, and since it will match the one printed on Life and Limb due to Artificial Evolution, this will cause all opposing permanents to become Saproling (or Illusion) Forest lands in addition to their other types.
NOTE: Should Mr. Bones wish to make his own permanents into lands too, he need only introduce Conspiracy to the combo, naming either Saproling or Illusion as appropriate.
So, the above combo works swimmingly. Using those five cards, Mr. Bones can reliably transform his opponents' permanents into lands. But I still needed to know: would adding Worms of the Earth and Eon Hub to the combo work? (Eon Hub being there solely to stop Worms of the Earth from destroying itself with its upkeep trigger.) If permanents would be lands the moment they entered the battlefield, would Worms of the Earth stop them from entering the battlefield outright? Turns out, the answer was no.
Prior to Amonkhet's release, the answer to that question was a little fuzzy. That's because there was no rule (to my knowledge) that directly handled how static abilities modified permanents entering the battlefield (or not), only a rule for handling replacement effects, which Worms of the Earth is not. Come Amonkhet though, a patch would be made to the comprehensive rules, eliminating this gray area.
So, the combo wouldn't work. Drat. If I wanted to build an unbreakable combo, I'd have to find some other way to do it. That displeasing conclusion led me to a new question though. Maybe I couldn't stop permanents from entering the battlefield, but what if I could make them lose their abilities? That way, no matter what sort of card entered play, it wouldn't matter. Nothing would be able to change the status quo. The Ride would be invincible! As it would turn out, this time I succeeded.
Hive Mind
Neverending Torment
Mycosynth Lattice
March of the Machines
Humility
Yixlid Jailer
Peacekeeper
Eon Hub
Opal Acrolith
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Cytoshape
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the steps below in order. (You may want to read closely. This combo is kind of a doozie.)
1. Float at least 14WWUBB. You will need this mana to cast spells. Since Lattice and March will nuke your lands the moment they notice each other though, you're going to need to float 14WWUBB at a minimum before both of those cards enter the battlefield. And although it may appear as though the colored mana won't be specifically necessary due to Mycosynth Lattice's third ability allowing players to spend mana as though it were any color, be aware that the Lattice will become a temporary copy of Opal Acrolith later in the combo and that you will want to cast colored spells after the Lattice has become an Opal Acrolith (and therefore lost its abilities) but before the copy effect has worn off. As such, colored mana will be necessary.
2. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Hive Mind and Humility. (The mana you floated earlier was not for this purpose. As such, you will need to float additional mana to pay for these spells or you will need to find some other way to put them onto the battlefield.)
The reason Hive Mind can't immediately be put onto the battlefield is because you need to cast Cytoshape to turn all of your permanents into copies of Opal Acrolith with Zada, Hedron Grinder. If Hive Mind were in play during this time, your opponents would receive their own copy of Cytoshape from Hive Mind, and they could use that copy to thwart your combo by transforming your Opal Acrolith into something else before any of your cards could become copies of it (since their copy of Cytoshape would resolve before your Cytoshape would). Fortunately, there's no need to put Hive Mind onto the battlefield during step 2 since it isn't important that Hive Mind retain its abilities. As you'll see in step 6, Hive Mind's only purpose is to help assemble the Ride. Once the combo is complete, you won't need Hive Mind anymore, so you won't care if it loses its abilities later to Humility.
The reason you need to hold off on Humility is a bit more straightforward. If you put Humility onto the battlefield during step 2, you wouldn't be able to combo off. You need Lattice, March of the Machines, Zada, and Opal Acrolith to all retain their abilities. That's not possible with Humility on the battlefield, and without them it wouldn't be possible to turn your cards into enchantments as you'll see in steps 3 and 4.
3. Use 3 of your floating mana to cast Cytoshape targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. (Remember: Mycosynth Lattice allows you to spend mana as though it were any color.) This will trigger Zada's ability, creating a copy of Cytoshape for each of your permanents (Lattice, March). As your Cytoshapes resolve, choose to have each of your permanents become a copy of Opal Acrolith.
4. Activate the 0 ability of each of your newfound Acroliths. (They don't need to be creatures to do this.) This will permanently transform your cards into noncreature enchantments even after Cytoshape wears off. In the event an opponent somehow casts a creature spell before the end of the turn, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again to ensure they remain enchantments (though you likely won't be able to after step 5).
5. Use 7WWU of your floating mana to cast both Hive Mind and Humility. (The order these two cards enter the battlefield is unimportant.) Because your Lattice, your March, and everything else you control is currently a copy of Opal Acrolith, you don't need to worry about Humility interfering with any of your other cards' abilities.
6. Cast Neverending Torment with your remaining 4BB, targeting whoever you please. (Who you target is mostly irrelevant.) Hive Mind will trigger and grant each of your opponents their own copy of Neverending Torment.
7. Once each players' Torment resolves, players will no longer be able to cast spells, and you can safely pass the turn. Your Cytoshape effects will wear off, turning all of your permanents back to normal except they will remain noncreature, nonartifact enchantments due to the continuous effects you generated back in step 4 when they were Opal Acroliths.
And with that, the Wild Ride is complete. Players won't be able to cast spells (due to having previously cast a Neverending Torment), won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Lattice + March + Humility) or of cards in graveyards (Yixlid Jailer), and won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper + Eon Hub). In addition, Humility will wipe the effects of everything not spared in step 4, and Omen Machine will stop players from decking out by removing their ability to draw, all but assuring an endless game in the process.
The reintroduction of Yixlid Jailer is rather fascinating. Those following along closely will remember from The Extended Combo that Yixlid Jailer was replaced by Rest in Peace after I realized that cards like Dawnbreak Reclaimer often made having cards in graveyards at all a huge liability. And while it may be possible to address those weaknesses with the right combination of graveyard hate cards, I have never put much stock in those concoctions, preferring to skirt the issue entirely by declaring graveyards off limits. That was easy enough to justify with Rest in Peace in my repertoire. By exiling each graveyard and keeping future cards out, there could be no cards in graveyards with which players could interact. Unfortunately, Rest in Peace cannot ensure graveyards are cardless. It is still possible for cards to wind up there in much the same way that One with Nothing can't ensure players are empty handed.
First, Rest in Peace can have its initial ability Stifled. This won't stop future cards from being exiled, but it will allow anything already there to stay put. Second, Rest in Peace can gain phasing. Any card put into a graveyard while Rest in Peace is phased out will not be exiled even after Rest in Peace phases back in. Third, Rest in Peace can become a temporary copy of something else (like an Opal Acrolith). If a card were put into a graveyard while Rest in Peace wasn't itself, that card would remain there even after Rest in Peace shrugs off its transformation.
Now, granted, these situations are incredibly unlikely, but so is every other out to Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, so they shouldn't just be brushed aside. The disappointing reality is that even though Yixlid Jailer will almost always be unnecessary in practice, most versions of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride ought to include both Yixlid Jailer and Rest in Peace, the Jailer to silence graveyards and Rest in Peace to stop death triggers. The Divergent Combo, however, is not most versions. Because death triggers cannot occur while Humility is on the battlefield, Rest in Peace, like Torpor Orb, is no longer needed here. As such, Yixlid Jailer will instead cover more possible holes while simultaneously allowing opponents the freedom to control whatever cards they want in their graveyard.
To my knowledge, there is currently no way to escape this form of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride. In fact, I suspect there never will be. This is because of the way Humility behaves.
Instead of granting would-be Houdinis the freedoms they need to escape, the Divergent Combo denies players the chance to control anything. Sort of. Like previous versions, players can still assume to control whatever it is they wish. Under the effects of Humility though, those cards become 1/1s with no abilities. As such, there's really no point in controlling anything. All cards in play become moot.
This helps illustrate why the other versions of the Ride are so beautiful. The Divergent Combo can't be broken. It doesn't give players any tools with which to escape. The other forms of the combo, while imperfect, are much wider in scope, allowing opponents to assume control of whatever it is that they want provided those cards don't interfere with the Ride's initial assembly. (Because, if they did, there'd be no point to the exercise in the first place.) And the Divergent Combo? It's lame. It's no different than if all your cards started in exile. Maximum security like that isn't impressive when it comes at the cost of breadth, so I forwent Humility in the next version to pursue something a little broader.
Come Ixalan, something miraculous happened. Remember this?
It's the comp rule that previously thwarted my Worms of the Earth experiment, my bold for emphasis. Well, with Ixalan's release, that comp rule has changed. It has now become this:
Notice anything different? The critical bolded text from the Amonkhet update is gone. Permanents entering the battlefield now take into account how continuous effects would apply to them should they actually enter. This now makes it possible to stop all permanents from entering the battlefield outright!
March of the Machines
Dismiss into Dream
Life and Limb
Artificial Evolution
Worms of the Earth
Eon Hub
Hive Mind
Neverending Torment
Null Rod
Rest in Peace
Peacekeeper
Opal Acrolith
Zada, Hedron Grinder
Cytoshape
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Privileged Position
Copy Enchantment
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Platinum Angel
Abyssal Persecutor
Solitary Confinement
Sands of Time
To construct this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, perform each of the following steps in order:
1. Float at least 13UBB. You will need this mana to cast spells. Since Null Rod will stop you from tapping your lands for mana once Lattice is in play though, you will need to make sure to float 13UBB at a minimum before both of those artifacts enter the battlefield. And while it may appear as though the colored mana won't be specifically necessary due to Mycosynth Lattice's third ability allowing players to spend mana as though it were any color, be aware that Lattice will become a temporary copy of Opal Acrolith later in the combo and that you will want to cast colored spells after the Lattice has become an Opal Acrolith (and therefore lost its abilities) but before its copy effect has worn off. As such, colored mana will be necessary.
2. Put all of the above listed permanents onto the battlefield except for Hive Mind. (The mana you floated earlier was not for this purpose. As such, you will need to either float additional mana to pay for these spells, or you will need to find some other way to put them onto the battlefield.) As a result of these cards entering play, Lattice and March will cause all lands to be put into their owners' exiles (Rest in Peace). Copy Enchantment should also become a copy of Privileged Position. Note that if both Copy Enchantment and Privileged Position enter the battlefield simultaneously though (perhaps due to Pyxis of Pandemonium), you won't be able to have your Copy Enchantment become a copy of Privileged Position, so make sure that your Privileged Position is in play prior to your Copy Enchantment entering the battlefield so as to not have both enchantments enter the battlefield at the same time.
The reason Hive Mind needs to be temporarily sidelined is because you need to turn all of your permanents into enchantments, but if you do so with Hive Mind on the battlefield, then your opponents will have the opportunity to either turn their own permanents into Acroliths (defeating the point of using Zada + Cytoshape instead of Mirrorweave, thereby allowing them to turn their own permanents into noncreature enchantments, dodging critical cards like Null Rod) or turn your Acrolith into something else (fizzeling your combo by causing your Opal Acrolith to become a copy of something else before any of your cards can become copies of it). Fortunately, it isn't necessary to have the Hive Mind itself become a noncreature enchantment (or Zada, Hedron Grinder for that matter, though the card must be the target of Cytoshape for obvious reasons) since Hive Mind's sole purpose is to grant opponents a copy of an epic spell (Neverending Torment in this case). Once opponents have cast their copy of Torment, Hive Mind is no longer required, and an opponent turning their face down Bane of the Living face up to kill it (remember that Mycosynth Lattice and March of the Machines will cause each of Mr. Bones' permanents that don't become enchantments through Opal Acrolith's ability to become artifact creatures) won't dismantle the Ride.
3. If the Dismiss Into Dream or Life and Limb you have on the battlefield hasn't already been textchanged by Artificial Evolution, be sure to spend 1 of your floating mana (not U) to cast Evolution now, changing either Illusion to Saproling on Dismiss Into Dream or Saproling to Illusion on Life and Limb. This will ensure the two cards' creature types match and that opponents' permanents will eventually not be able to enter the battlefield. It's important this happens before Cytoshape is cast since Zada will transform each of your permanents into Opal Acroliths once Cytoshape resolves, and the printed types you need to change won't be there anymore once all of your cards are Acroliths.
4. Use 3 more of your floating mana to cast Cytoshape targeting Zada, Hedron Grinder. This will trigger Zada's ability, creating a copy of Cytoshape for each of your permanents (remember: Lattice and March are causing all of your permanents to become artifact creatures). Choose to have all of your permanents become copies of Opal Acrolith. As mentioned in step two, it's important to have your permanents become copies of Opal Acrolith prior to Hive Mind entering play lest an opponent use a copy of Cytoshape gifted to them by Hive Mind to turn your Opal Acrolith into something else, preventing you from turning your own permanents into copies of it yourself.
5. Activate the 0 ability of each of your Opal Acrolith copies. This will permanently turn them into noncreature enchantments (assuming your opponents are incapable of casting creature spells during this process). In the event an opponent somehow does cast a creature spell, you will need to activate the 0 ability of each of your Acroliths again to ensure they stay as enchantments and not creatures.
6. Use 5U of your floating mana to cast Hive Mind.
7. Cast Neverending Torment with your remaining 4BB targeting whoever you please. (Who you target is mostly irrelevant.) Hive Mind will trigger and grant each of your opponents their own copy of Torment.
8. Once each players' Torment resolves, players will no longer be able to cast spells, and you can pass the turn. Your Cytoshape effects will wear off, turning all of your permanents back to normal except they will continue to be noncreature nonartifact enchantments due to the continuous effects they generated back in step six when they activated their 0 abilities as Opal Acroliths.
With this, the Wild Ride is complete. Players won't be able to cast spells (due to having previously cast a Neverending Torment), won't be able to activate abilities of permanents (Null Rod + Mycosynth Lattice) or of cards in graveyards (Rest in Peace), and won't be able to attack with creatures (Peacekeeper + Eon Hub). In addition, your opponents won't be able to have permanents enter the battlefield under their control (Worms of the Earth + Life and Limb and several others). With that cocktail of curses, Abyssal Persecutor and Platinum Angel finally assure an endless game of Magic for you and for your opponents.
So, there you have it. What you presumably came here to see. The flagship 23-card combo.
Sandwiching my Worms of the Earth combo into the rest of the Wild Ride required some unexpected finagling, mostly due to the inclusion of March of the Machines. As you can see, Hanna's Custody and Guardian Beast are now gone, with Privileged Position, Copy Enchantment, and Avacyn, Angel of Hope taking their place. The loss of Hanna's Custody is especially irksome considering the card not only granted our permanents shroud, but also our opponents', further hindering what little ability they had left to interact with their own cards. Unfortunately, Hanna's Custody came with two major obstacles that all but required its exclusion.
First, Hanna's Custody could only grant shroud onto artifacts. Now, that isn't problematic by itself. Mycosynth Lattice can obviously make everything an artifact. The trouble comes with the introduction of March of the Machines to the combo, as it would be nearly impossible to make everything an artifact without also causing everything to become a creature, something which had to be avoided due to the existence of Bane of the Living. And since finding a replacement for Hanna's Custody is much easier than finding a replacement for March of the Machines, the Custody had to go.
The second troublesome quality Hanna's Custody possessed is that it bestowed shroud instead of hexproof. This is why you don't see cards like Sterling Grove or Fountain Watch taking its place. Because practically all of my combo pieces need to exist on the battlefield as noncreature enchantments in order to dodge Bane of the Living, Hanna's Custody would need to be on the battlefield alongside Mycosynth Lattice prior to a Mirrorweave or Cytoshape being cast if it wanted to avoid animation via March of the Machines. See the problem here? If both Hanna's Custody and Mycosynth Lattice were on the battlefield simultaneously, all of my permanents would have shroud, and I wouldn't be able to target them with either instant. Sure, with some serious flash sequencing, it may be possible to avoid this situation, but since doing so would raise the combo's complexity even further, and considering a solution to the Wild Ride involving me specifically being unable to target my own permanents has never been discovered, I wager that any perceived advantage generated by causing my combo pieces to gain shroud as opposed to hexproof can be safely discounted. Maybe some day Wizards will print a one-sided Mirrorweave that doesn't target, and I won't have to work with this limitation. Until that happens though, Cytoshape and Mirrorweave are all I've got.
Guardian Beast exits the combo for much the same reason as Hanna's Custody. Because my combo pieces can no longer be artifacts due March of the Machines making artifacts vulnerable to Bane of the Living, Guardian Beast no longer works; artifacts must be noncreature in order to reap the benefits of the Beast, and that simply isn't possible given the form of the combo. Fortunately, an Avacyn performs much the same role as Guardian Beast, if not an identical role, as no solution to the Ride involving the unique benefits a Guardian Beast would provide has ever been discovered. The list of changes doesn't stop there though. Torpor Orb is also no longer necessary due to Worms of the Earth now shutting out permanents of all types, not just lands. After all, if permanents can't enter the battlefield at all, there's little sense in keeping around a card which only stops enter the battlefield triggers.
Sands of Time also makes an unexpected return. While trying to crack this form of the combo, I realized that because permanents wouldn't be able to enter the battlefield, any solution would likely require combobreaking cards to already be on the battlefield, just in some kind of inert state so as to not discount them as legitimate answers. With the recent printing of Teferi's Protection, phasing came back to my mind, and it was then that I realized I would need some way to skip each player's untap step in order to stop troublesome permanents from phasing in and disrupting the Ride. Previously, I circumvented the need for cards like Sands of Time by discounting phasing as a solution. After all, if I required my lock to be unimpeded by the cards initially on the battlefield, phased out permanents still counted, right? They are technically on the battlefield after all. With the combo's recent development though, I began to increasingly feel that phasing permanents in was fair game. As such, measures needed to be taken to prevent the Ride from unraveling with them.
Zada and Cytoshape replace Mirrorweave in the combo because we now care whether or not our opponents can turn their creatures into Opal Acrolith copies. In earlier forms of the combo, as outlined in Salacious Technology, turning our opponents' creatures into copies of Opal Acrolith was inconsequential. A Mycosynth Lattice would come down after the effects of Mirrorweave had ended, so any permanent that had become an enchantment would still become an artifact in addition to its other types and thus also be affected by Null Rod. With the addition of March of the Machines to the combo, this is no longer the case as all of our combo pieces (except Hive Mind) must now become copies of Opal Acrolith and not just our creature cards. If they don't, Lattice and March will just turn them into creatures, thereby exposing them to Bane of the Living. As such, the simplest fix is to stop our opponents from ever turning their cards into Acroliths in the first place. This way, they'll be unable to dodge Null Rod by turning their cards into enchantments.
Whew! Did I miss anything? I think that covers it. Oh wait. Omen Machine.
I really wish that Omen Machine could have remained a part of the Ride. Any dullard can tell you that Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor can together create an endless game. The inclusion of such cards only tends to suggest that my combo isn't as sophisticated as it actually is. In reality, I'm actually cognizant of both Shared Fate and Omen Machine each being capable of independently creating an endless game by themselves. Alas, the angel-demon duo is necessary. Without the pair, I would need to find a different way of preventing Biovisionary victories and Atraxa from proliferating lethal poison. And since the combo has become so harrowing that using anything but the fully assembled lock would likely result in malfunction, Omen Machine has now become excessive. It doesn't do anything any other part of the Ride doesn't already do. As such, it needed to go.
To escape this version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride, suppose you control an Opalescence that is currently an enchantment with no abilities due to having previously been affected by Soul Sculptor's ability. (How this Opalescence initially became a creature for Soul Sculptor to target is unimportant, but to provide one explanation, perhaps a Mirage Mirror was activated at some point and became a copy of Opalescence temporarily. This would animate the Opalescence long enough for Soul Sculptor to target it without the Opalescence also permanently becoming a creature.) Suppose you also control an Upwelling, an Eladamri's Vineyard, a face down Bane of the Living, and a face down Vesuvan Shapeshifter.
At the beginning of each of your precombat main phases, you will add GG to your mana pool with Eladamri's Vineyard. This mana will not exit your mana pool as steps and phases end due to Upwelling. Once enough turns have passed and a sufficient amount of mana has been generated this way, you can then turn your face down Vesuvan Shapeshifter face up. (The Mycosynth Lattice controlled by Mr. Bones allows players to spend mana as though it were any color.) Choose to have the Shapeshifter become a copy of Opalescence. (Opalescence is currently a creature due to Lattice and March, but still has no abilities because it still is under the effect of Soul Sculptor's ability.) When Vesuvan Shapeshifter becomes a copy of Opalescence, it will gain all of the abilities printed on the card even though the Opalescence currently has no abilities. This transformation will summarily result in all of Mr. Bones' enchantments becoming creatures with power and toughness equal to their respective CMCs. From there, you can turn your face down Bane of the Living face up, putting its triggered ability onto the stack. When it resolves, all of Mr. Bones' enchantment creatures will be put into his exile (Rest in Peace), and the Wild Ride will be disassembled.
Having discovered Soul Sculptor's ability to disrupt the Ride, I am now at an impasse. Without some way to stop players from turning their cards face up (or some way to prevent mana from entering mana pools), I cannot foresee a fix to this problem. The “perfect lock” simply doesn't exist. If you, reader, possess any knowledge leading to the further development of this combo, I implore you to reach out and contact me. Until then, the Ride ends here.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
You might be able to introduce a sacrifice creature or something else which would allow you to break the loop. So it might be that as long as you have the means yourself to break it, it might not end in a draw?
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Not quite. An opponent could still assume to control any number of Glorious Anthem effects.
Depends what you mean. In practice? Sure. There are cards that can prevent the Wild Ride from assembling, and ensuring those cards aren't on the battlefield would make assembling the Ride easier. This combo isn't concerned with ease of assembly though. It just wants to demonstrate how to create an endless game of Magic in the most secure way possible without sacrificing scope in the process.
I never really got around to explaining this in the guide, but if the Wild Ride is in effect, opponents may assume to control whatever it is they want provided that no such things interfere with the Wild Ride to begin with. For example, in most versions an opponent could not assume to control a Titania's Song because if a Titania's Song were on the battlefield at the same time as the Wild Ride then the Wild Ride could not be in effect, and there would be no thought exercise with which to consider. If, after the Wild Ride had gone into effect, an opponent were to somehow manage to put something like a Titania's Song onto the battlefield, that would be considered a legitimate solution though.
I haven't put much effort into trying to circumvent rule 104.4b. What I can say is that it's more difficult to circumvent than it appears to be, and that my modest attempts at doing so were rebuked by the folks in the Magic Rulings section. I can't say for certain whether or not what you're proposing will work. That's above my pay grade. I highly doubt it would be that easy though.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I guess you could add Greater Gargadon as part of it to conclusively solve this problem, as it will mean that you can sacrifice at any time meaning that the loop can be broken, you know if you wanted to The counters won't naturally be removed either as you don't have an upkeep.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Again, this isn't that simple. From what I understand, what you're proposing won't work.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
I can only see the real 'Prison Break' if you remove Peacekeeper is if there is some infect/wither creature or exile on damage, as Privileged Position, Copy Enchantment prevents targeted removing. Avacyn, Angel of Hope will mean creature battles should be without consequence, for you.
It seems like Platinum Angel and Abyssal Persecutor stops the need for worrying about combat anyway, and also not sure why you'd need the Solitary Confinement with the above two as well?
I feel like Peacekeeper and Solitary Confinement could be removed.
I'll try to think up Prison Breaks for having combat.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Solitary Confinement is only there for its shroud granting effect. It's effectively an Ivory Mask.
It's possible. It's something I haven't considered in a while, so some of the more recent changes may have rendered them unnecessary. Removing either seems fraught with danger to me though.
Nothing. In an actual game of Magic, opponents could certainly interrupt the Wild Ride as it's trying to be assembled. Doing this isn't considered a solution though. They merely stopped the Ride from ever happening in the first place. The thought experiment is to try and find a way off the Ride after it has already been assembled.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Also on a similar note, Archfiend of Ifnir could get an opponent out of the lock, if they had enough cycling cards in their hand.
So another reason to add the Hex Parasite to be able to kill off creatures first.
[EDIT]
If you could clarify, the Mycosynth Lattice + March of the Machines should make all your permanents artifact creatures. So even if you use Opal Acrolith to make them enchantments, I believe they will be "artifact enchantments", and so therefore still be creatures from the March of the Machines?
Please let me know if there is some sequencing or timing I'm missing out on, as it's pretty complicated interactions.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
While it's true that the Wild Ride does not stop players from activating abilities of cards in their hand (as well as in exile and the command zone), none of Mr. Bones' cards are creatures due to Opal Acrolith, so Archfiend of Ifnir will not be able to undo the lock. If a player were to somehow turn Mr. Bones' permanents back into creatures after the Wild Ride had been assembled, then an Archfiend could be used.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
The most recent Ixalan Comp Rules version of Mr. Bones' Wild Ride orders these effects the other way so that all of Mr. Bones' permanents will be nonartifact enchantments and therefore won't be affected by March of the Machines.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
There is the possibility of working in Overwhelming Splendor as a one sided Humility as that stops morphs I believe?
Because at the end of the day you have to commit your creatures to the board and put Opal Acrolith effects afterwards, so in a real game you would fall victim to a Bane of the Living. I know it's all hypothetical but you would want to structure it, so the very thing you're trying to play around, isn't actually going to get you.
You need to copy the Overwhelming Splendor to all opponents, because the thought experiment would have to assume that all players might have morph creatures / Archfiend of Ifnir.
The only cards I can think of for copying enchantments are: Estrid's Invocation, Copy Enchantment, Clever Impersonator.
But we can assume artifacts as well because of Mycosynth Lattice: Copy Artifact, Echo Storm, Phyrexian Metamorph, Saheeli Rai, Saheeli, the Gifted, Saheeli's Artistry, Sculpting Steel, Stolen Identity.
But this is tricky right as most of these come off as one-for-one and you have to assume any number of opponents.
It might be that Echo Storm is the method to make sure of any number of opponents, by having some infinite with your commander. There are other infinite's with Saheeli, the Gifted and probably Saheeli Rai as well, but this is adding a lot of complexity.
Of course in practicality there is probably likely to be only one opponent with morph creatures (if any), but I see where you are coming from.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
First, it's an aura, and that's bad news because of March of the Machines. Overwhelming Splendor cannot ever become a creature since a card enchanting another card will implode if it becomes a creature. To ensure that it doesn't become one to Lattice + March though, it would need to become a copy of Opal Acrolith first (which would also require it to become a creature), and that isn't possible, so there's really no way to use the card.
Second, the Humility part of the card narrows the scope of the combo. That's super lame since narrowing the scope basically confesses that some subset of creatures can create legitimate solutions to the combo. Taken to the extreme, it's possible to forbid all cards. What makes the Ride interesting is that, rather than forbidding opponents the tools they need to escape, the Ride just makes escaping hard. Really hard.
Not necessarily. A player might not have the mana they need to disrupt the Wild Ride with a Bane of the Living while the combo is being assembled for example.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
The problem is that they can just put mana into their mana pool, in response to what you're doing. The can just follow suit on what your a doing until a Null Rod is on the stack, and you have to then float your mana as well.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
EDIT: I guess I should have explained that even if an Overwhelming Splendor were to somehow become a copy of Opal Acrolith, it would unattach to whatever player it was previously attached to. It would then be put into the graveyard once it reverts back to being an Overwhelming Splendor since it would then not be attached to anything.
I'm not sure you're following me. All I was trying to do was show that it's possible for a player to control a Bane of the Living and still not be able to disrupt the Wild Ride as it's being assembled (perhaps because that player doesn't have enough untapped mana to turn it face up at that moment).
Realistically, players will always be able to thwart the Wild Ride as it's being assembled. They don't even need something like Bane of the Living to do it. A simple Counterspell will suffice in many places. This combo isn't concerned about that though since no combo can be assembled with impunity. (And even if one could, the impunity one acquired to do so could not be assembled with impunity, and so on, and so forth.)
Currently? I think so too. It's entirely possible that Wizards prints something some day like "Face down creatures cannot be turned face up." or some such. Right now, I'm perfectly happy with Soul Sculptor being the only card I know of that can disrupt the Wild Ride though.
You have to be careful with this. It's possible that combat may be able to circumvent rule 104.4b, but I'm not entirely sure. Opponents can't be forced to attack (except by the effect of some card), and if an opponent were forced to attack then there's no longer a choice to be made there. It may be possible that who opponents choose to attack and with what creatures they choose to attack with circumvents rule 104.4b, but I think there's a lot to account for, and that could easily go astray. Even if it were to work, players would have to have creatures in play with which to attack with, and they would have to never end up in a state where they could become tapped due to Sands of Time. (So Angel's Trumpet wouldn't work, but Synchronous Sliver + Artificial Evolution naming Saproling or Illusion would.) Even then, that angle still seems very unlikely to me.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
Shahrazad came to mind, and would've been perfect, but unfortunately it's banned.
So I been thinking about what type of Magic can still be played inside a locked game state, that doesn't threaten to break the lock?
Something where the opponents can actually do something. One thing that seems harmless is flipping coins.
So this is a bit of a different spin on the whole idea, but the idea is that you infinitely cast something like Game of Chaos. This will get around any game locked draw states as well.
So it's another layer of complexity, but I'll just lay it out.
You have to be able cast it, so you're going to need to counter your own Neverending Torment to start with. So something like Ertai, Wizard Adept.
Rest in Peace will also exile it, so Wheel of Sun and Moon targeting yourself.
When you cast it, it will go onto the bottom, so eventually you'll always draw it again to cast it.
The cool thing is that because of Hive Mind, all your opponents will also make a copy of the spell (Hive Mind is not "cast" for the copies), so you get to play a bunch of Game of Chaos. You know so everybody is going to be included in the games no matter what, just as Richard Garfield intended.
Now who wouldn't want to be flipping coins forever? If anybody else has some harmless sub-games that could be played please let me know?
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
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GWU Angus Mackenzie's Fog of War GWU / B Sheoldred's Sleepless Cemetery B / R Ashling's Purifying Pilgrimage R
U Unesh's Sphinx Storm U / R Ib's Goblins: What It Says On The Tin R / UR Okaun & Zndrsplt Flip Out UR
Oathbreaker: UB Ashiok's Persistent Nightmare UB
Not only that, but Eon Hub makes it so that Worms of the Earth will never trigger in the first place.
To be fair though, this sort of interaction is something I should have explicitly spelled out at the beginning of my guide right after the introduction. I just sort of got sick of writing it after having worked on it on and off for two or so years, and since there was no way I wasn't not going to publish it, I just went ahead and posted it full well knowing some information would be missing. My apologies for any confusion I may have caused. I just knew I needed to move on, and I wasn't going to work on this anymore.
Thank you for the kind words.
I suppose Mr. Bones isn't much of a "deck" anymore though. I mean, I've played with this combo in various Commander decks over the years (the decks surrounding the combo are almost another topic entirely), but I've never really felt like I've ever assembled a deck for this combo that I'm truly proud of and happy to showcase. Hence, the lack of an actual decklist anywhere in this guide. Still, I'm happy to accept any praise you might have for it, decklist or otherwise.
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!
This is great stuff. Good work.
I am severely interested in any sort of list you might be able to share. Even if you feel like you never got to an optimized deck, know that you would at least make me very happy by allowing me to peruse it.
10 Reaper King
Land (42)
0 Command Tower
0 Exotic Orchard
0 Reflecting Pool
0 Spire of Industry
0 Reliquary Tower
0 Academy Ruins
0 Geier Reach Sanitarium
0 Inventors' Fair
0 Maze of Ith
0 Flooded Strand
0 Polluted Delta
0 Bloodstained Mire
0 Wooded Foothills
0 Windswept Heath
0 Marsh Flats
0 Verdant Catacombs
0 Misty Rainforest
0 Scalding Tarn
0 Arid Mesa
0 Tundra
0 Underground Sea
0 Savannah
0 Scrubland
0 Bayou
0 Tropical Island
0 Plains
0 Island
0 Swamp
0 Forest
0 Glacial Fortress
0 Drowned Catacomb
0 Sunpetal Grove
0 Isolated Chapel
0 Woodland Cemetery
0 Hinterland Harbor
0 Morphic Pool
0 Bountiful Promenade
0 Arcane Sanctum
0 Seaside Citadel
0 Sandsteppe Citadel
0 Opulent Palace
The Wild Ride (19)
6 Omen Machine
5 Worms of the Earth
5 Eon Hub
6 Hive Mind
6 Neverending Torment
6 Mycosynth Lattice
2 Null Rod
2 Rest in Peace
1 One with Nothing
3 Peacekeeper
3 Opal Acrolith
4 Mirrorweave
7 Platinum Angel
4 Abyssal Persecutor
5 Sigarda, Host of Herons
9 Darksteel Forge
3 Hanna's Custody
3 Solitary Confinement
2 Torpor Orb
Card Draw (10)
1 Mystic Remora
2 Compost
2 Scroll Rack
2 Sylvan Library
3 Insight
3 Rhystic Study
4 One with the Machine
5 Rush of Knowledge
6 Consecrated Sphinx
6 Recurring Insight
0 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Exploration
3 Selvala, Explorer Returned
5 Mirari's Wake
Protection (4)
2 Delay
3 Anguished Unmaking
3 Teferi's Protection
4 Cloud Cover
Tutors (5)
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Artificer's Intuition
5 Parallel Thoughts
Recovery (3)
2 Riftsweeper
5 Mirror of Fate
6 Seasons Past
Assembly (7)
1 Lens of Clarity
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Synod Sanctum
1 Voltaic Key
3 Penance
4 Unwinding Clock
5 Seedborn Muse
Flash (1)
4 Vedalken Orrery
Hand Size (1)
1 Library of Leng
Some notes:
Because you can't feasibly assemble the Mr. Bones combo in an actual game of Commander, you need a different combo — an assembly combo — to get the deck to work. This becomes the basis of the deck. You try to find your assembly combo, cast it, and then construct the Wild Ride.
Now, there are many different ways to go about building an assembly combo, some much better than others. Most Rube Goldbergs start their combo by obtaining infinite mana or by playing some kind of two card combo a la Omniscience Enter the Infinite. This, in my not so humble opinion, is an incredibly stupid way to go about making one's combo. Is it efficient? Yes, of course, but it misses the point entirely. Once you've obtained infinite mana, drawn your entire deck, etc., the game is already over. You've effectively won the game. From there, nobody is going to sit around and wait for you to go through the motions especially if they know it takes a long time for you to execute your combo like Mr. Bones does. And if your opponents are both patient and curious enough to sit around and watch you do your victory lap, it is only by their good graces. If all they wanted to do was find out how your combo worked, then there was never any need to show them ingame where they would effectively be held hostage. Instead, you could have just shown them outside that context and saved all parties involved a significant amount of time. You're not clogging your deck with almost two dozen cards just to see your opponents pack up before the show has even started, so if you want to actually demonstrate your combo ingame (and I imagine you do), then the assembly combo can't win the game in and of itself. The Wild Ride has to be what actually brings the game to an end. That means it must be assembled throughout the course of the game and not at the tail end of it as a result of winning.
Building the Ride as the game is being played comes with some challenges. Namely, once certain pieces are in play, they tend to restrict your own ability to assemble the rest of the lock. For this reason, most combo pieces can't be run out one at a time and need to be put onto the battlefield simultaneously. That's also problematic since most of the cards that do that aren't also superweapons that can be charged up.
Over the years, my preferred way to assemble Mr. Bones Wild Ride has been with Pyxis of Pandemonium. It allows me to squirrel my combo pieces away in a pocket dimension until I'm ready to unleash them all at once. And by using cards like Lens of Clarity, Scroll Rack, Academy Ruins, Penance, and Vampiric Tutor, I can manipulate the top card of my library to ensure it's something I always want in the box. Many players are excited to see me open it, enticed by the prospect of free permanents, and will often leave the card alone as you're charging it up. Sure, they know you're up to something; they can see you putting something inside that Pyxis, but unless they've played you before, they honestly won't have a clue. That can translate into a bad feeling for some players, but most often players leave you alone thinking you're some kind of weird hug deck. They do want their cards back after all.
Of course, exiling one card per turn is way too slow to ever make work, so I need to include cards like Voltaic Key, Seedborn Muse, and Unwinding Clock to speed up the process. Even with these cards, it still takes a ton of time to get going, but that's not a bad thing. Again, players need to see you charge up your superweapon (although, at the time, they might not realize it is, in fact, a superweapon).
Trap your friends in an endless game with this 23-card combo!